Patrick Mahomes donates thousands of books to Kansas City schools as part of his reading initiative

By KMBC 9 News Staff

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — The Kansas City Chiefs have nominated their quarterback for the prestigious Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

Patrick Mahomes is being honored, in part, for his foundation 15 and the Mahomies.

Patrick Mahomes named Kansas City Chiefs nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award The same day the nomination was announced, the Chiefs’ QB surprised 15 area schools with free books.

The gift comes with a challenge: his “Read For 15” initiative.

Students at the Academy for Integrated Arts were excited about the program, made in partnership with Lead to Read KC, coming to their school.

Dozens of young students told KMBC they were thrilled to participate in the initiative.

Mahomes is working on using his mammoth image as a sports icon to motivate kids for good.

Kids across Kansas City are reading, thanks to encouragement from Mahomes. His initiative distributes thousands of free books to schools.

“When someone like Patrick, who is influential, when they see him do that, it inspires them to want to be readers,” instructional coach Haley Hurst said.

Five thousand books are headed to 15 Kansas City schools with the goal of getting students to read for at least 15 minutes a day while they’re not in school.

“The kids are struggling with the reading skills following the pandemic, so it’s never been more important,” Paul Hart with Lead to Read KC said.

Hurst says just 15 minutes makes a huge difference.

“If students just read even 15 minutes a day, they get almost 1,000,000 new words per year,” Hurst said.

It’s the third year of the Read for 15 initiative. In that time, More than 15,000 students have taken the challenge.

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