Over the next two weeks, all Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) elementary schools will dedicate at least half a school day to hosting families and community volunteers as they read to students in their classrooms for the annual “Read Your Heart Out” event which is now celebrating 21 years.
Michelle Belnavis, a longtime educator in the MMSD, founded Read Your Heart Out back in 2004 and has watched it grow from its humble beginnings in Midvale Elementary School to more than 40 schools in eight districts across Wisconsin.
“The way people have embraced Read Your Heart Out fills my heart with so much joy because there was a time when I had to push so much and help people see the importance of putting books in the hands of kids where their identity is a positive reflection of who they are, not a negative one,” Belnavis says. “The acceptance over the years of what we are trying to accomplish this day makes me feel such gratitude.
“Reading is so important for kids who don’t see how powerful they can be until they pick up a book and see themselves in positions where they are successful,” Belnavis adds, “and that pushes kids mentally, physically, and definitely academically.”
Every year at Read Your Heart Out (RYHO), family members, community members and volunteers read books, recite poetry or connect with students through visual or oral storytelling in the classrooms throughout Madison during the month of February. RYHO 2025 officially kicked off on Monday, which is also National African American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID), an event founded by Joseph Dulin in 1995 and inspired by the Million Man March.
(Photo by David Dahmer)
“This is year 21 and we’re still celebrating the gift of the mayoral proclamation and commemoration for year 20 that happened in 2024. That is still heavy in our head and we are thankful in our heart for that,” Belnavis says. Belnavis flew into Madison from Charlotte, N.C., where she now lives after retiring from more than 40 years in education in Madison, to attend the 20th-anniversary celebration last year. “We were excited to celebrate this year with the new superintendent, Dr. Joe Gothard. who read to the students in the classrooms at Mendota Elementary School to help kick off the event.”
“Read Your Heart Out” is an annual celebration of literacy, cultural pride and community engagement that embraces the African concept of Sankofa and the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
“This year’s theme is Kujichagulia, a Swahili word that means ‘self-determination’ and reflects not giving up,” Belnavis says. “It’s the whole ‘I can do anything I put my mind to. I can overcome obstacles. I’m striving to succeed.’ So the books that I shared for the kickoff represent that mentality.”
This year’s Read Your Heart Out program, which is normally kicked off on National African American Parent Involvement Day with an in-person event at an MMSD building, was launched virtually on Monday.
“We come together as a community to celebrate the power of reading, the joy of storytelling, and the incredible impact books can have on our lives,” said Sarita Foster, MMSD’s community schools manager, in a statement announcing the kickoff of RYHO 2025. “This is a day to inspire and be inspired. … It’s about fostering a lifelong love of reading, nurturing curiosity, and empowering students to explore the world through books.”
Since its inception at Midvale Elementary School in 2004, Read Your Heart Out has continued to grow and bring more schools (and more readers) in every year. Despite having relocated to North Carolina, Belnavis remains very close to her RYHO baby who is now 21 years old.
“I always want this event to remain true to the purpose that it was created back at Midvale [Elementary School], and that was to increase student, family, and community engagement, specifically for our students of color, our African American students who always have to push harder to be seen as successful,” Belnavis says.
“This event brings me overwhelming joy and I hope it does for our students, too. A lot of my students, who are the ones who really inspired me to start Read Your Heart Out so that they can shine, will now call me and let me know how they are doing today or come back to read during Read Your Heart Out to celebrate what they really started,” Belnavis says. “They are doing all of the work; I just put the event together and the people together and showed them a place where they could feel like they really mattered. And now those students are teachers and superintendents themselves, and they have kids who now are participating in Read Your Heart Out. That is overwhelming joy to me.”
