Go Big Read, inspiring literacy through Nebraska Athletics

A young girl reads a book about Simone Biles, with a Husker gymnast leaning over her shoulder. The gymnast enriches the story, providing her own gymnastic experiences. Together, the two engage in the joy of reading as a part of the first ever Go Big Read campaign. 

Go Big Read was a week-long effort to promote literacy in the Lincoln community that ran from Feb. 24 to Feb. 28. Nebraska Athletics and Linked2Literacy partnered together to program events for the week in response to dwindling literacy rates among Lincoln children.

Other community partners included the Nebraska Department of Education, Lincoln Housing Authority, Community Action Partnership, Sheldon Museum of Art and Lincoln City Libraries. 

“Nebraska Athletics is a huge staple, not only in our community in Lincoln, but the whole state,” Kristen Nett, assistant director of Community and Charitable Relations for Nebraska Athletics, said. “The fact that we can use our platform to actually make a change is great. Kids get so excited about athletes. They get excited about sports. We can show the importance of reading through that. It's a win.” 

The first day of Go Big Read was “Go Big Read at School.” Student-athletes visited Title 1 schools in Lincoln, reading to children. 

“(Go Big Read) is a different vessel to ignite the joy of reading with a different demographic of people,” Tiffani Childress, the board president of Linked2Literacy, said. “It's a good way to correlate the importance of literacy plus the joy of sports and involvement. You get kids excited in a different capacity.”

Day two of Go Big Read was “Go Big Read at the Library.” Husker cheer, spirit squads and mascots visited three Lincoln City Libraries branches for story time and movement exercises. 

“If a kid cannot read, they cannot learn,” Kathleen Ousey, the executive director of Linked2Literacy, said. “But even more than that, it's about seeing yourself in books. It's about seeing other people. It's about opening up the representation of the world around you and connecting with a story.” 

Day three of Go Big Read was “Go Big Read in the Community” at Community Action’s Gathering Place and Lincoln Housing Authority’s Air Park Community Center. Free books were provided to children who attended. 

“Kids can see our student-athletes as role models, and if they say, ‘Oh well, they're reading, which means it's cool, so I should get into reading,’” Nett said. “It's been really great to have their support behind this and using their specific personal platform to make a difference.” 

The fourth day of Go Big Read was “Go Big Read Together” at the Sheldon Museum of Art. Husker football players were paired up with children in the Malone Center after school program as they read poetry and viewed art. There were also opportunities for kids to sign up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and for their own library card with Lincoln City Libraries. 

“Anytime we can interact with art, it gives us a chance to think about so many different things,” Matthew Boyd, the manager of Community Learning and Engagement at Sheldon, said. “How do we engage with our community? How do we engage with different subjects, different perspectives? Literacy is so important as a skill to practice and to be able to be a part of that here in our community, makes everything better.”

“Go Big Read at Home” was the final day of the Go Big Read program. Families were encouraged to read together for 30 minutes at their homes. 

“If you can read, you can do anything,” Childress said. “That's where the empowerment piece comes from. For me books have been a safe haven, and I've tried to instill that within my kids. It’s a nice reprieve from the world. The mission is to inspire generational change right through inclusive books, literacy based education programs and then new partnerships. This evokes it all.” 

The Go Big Read team is already thinking about the future, making the week an annual occurrence. They are brainstorming how to bring together even more partners for 2026. 

Published in the Daily Nebraskan, read here.

A girl looks at the booth at Go Big Read Week in the Sheldon Museum of Art on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Lincoln. Photo by Izzy Lewis.