Students from Willowcreek Middle School and Lakeridge Junior High represented Alpine School District at the Utah State Capitol rotunda on Friday, Oct. 2, as part of Utah's inaugural statewide Read-a-Thon.

More than 275,000 students and adults participated across the state, reading in schools, libraries and workplaces, according to the district. First Lady Abby Cox welcomed students to the Capitol, where each attendee received a free book donated by Marissa's Books through the Salt Lake Chamber's Utah Community Builders initiative.

Jack, a Lakeridge Junior High student reading Downriver by Will Hobbs, said it was his first visit to the Capitol. "If we don't read, then we don't know how to understand the world," he said. "The more you read, the more you can understand what people are saying, the more you can understand where people are coming from."

Gov. Spencer Cox delivered a statewide broadcast address and appeared at the rotunda toward the end of the gathering. Cox said he deleted social media from his phone to make time for classics, citing Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.

Back in Alpine School District classrooms, schools found their own ways to mark the day.

Lehi High School hosted a daylong literacy celebration with reading bingo and scheduled reading breaks. At Eagle Valley Elementary, visiting mentors from Cedar Valley High shared favorite books and talked with younger students about why reading matters. Willowcreek Middle School set aside 30 minutes of its "Pride Time" block for schoolwide reading.

Lakeridge Junior High has been building reading into daily routines since the start of the school year through a "book in every backpack" requirement. Principal Derek Elison said in a district article published Monday, Sept. 28 that students now reach for books instead of phones when they have free time in class. A select group of Lakeridge English language learner students rode a bus to the Capitol for the event.

The statewide push comes as Utah works to raise third-grade reading proficiency. Only 50.3% of Utah third graders met grade-level reading benchmarks in 2025, according to a University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute report covered by the Lehi Free Press. Rebecca, a Willowcreek student who attended the Capitol while her classmates read back at school, said reading in the rotunda felt like immersing herself in the knowledge that already comes out of the building.

State lawmakers set a goal of 70% third-grade reading proficiency by 2027 through SB127, passed in 2022.