For immediate release | October 18, 2010
YALSA, WWE® kick-Off WrestleMania® XVII Reading Challenge
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CHICAGO — World Wrestling Entertainment®’s , sponsored by the (YALSA), a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½), launches this week as part of ™, which takes place October 17-23. WWE Superstars Big Show®, Hornswoggle®, Kofi Kingston®, Rey Mysterio® and Diva Eve™ are the spokespeople for the 2010-2011 Challenge.
More than 60,000 students in 1,700 school and public libraries in the U.S. and Canada are expected to participate in this year’s Challenge in the hopes of winning an all-expenses-paid trip to WrestleMania XXVII in Atlanta on April 3, 2010, along with $2,000 and books for their local sponsoring libraries. (For more on the WrestleMania Reading Challenge, watch . )
Students compete in three categories: grades 5-6, grades 7-8 and grades 9-12. Each participant will pledge to read five books and complete a grade-specific project. Grades 5-6 will design a bookmark illustrating an original slogan promoting reading. Entrants in grades 7-12 will form a tag team of their favorite literary character and their favorite current WWE Superstar or Diva and describe and/or illustrate the strategy they would use to defeat the current WWE Tag Team Champions, Superstar “Dashing” Cody Rhodes™ and Superstar Drew McIntyre™.
Twenty-one finalists (three in each grade category from seven geographic regions) will then compete in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Finals in Atlanta on Saturday, April 2, 2011 and one champion from each grade level will win ringside seats at WrestleMania XXVII.
"This is the fifth year of the WrestleMania Reading Challenge, and we are expecting our strongest participation ever," said Gary Davis, WWE Vice President, Global Public Affairs. “WWE remains committed to encouraging teens to read through our efforts with YALSA."
“Partnering with WWE provides YALSA the chance to reach a wide audience of teens and tweens with a message about the vital role books, reading and libraries can play in their lives,” said YALSA President Kim Patton.
For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audiobooks for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to , or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390; or e-mail, yalsa@ala.org.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family-friendly, PG content across all of its platforms including television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 145 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 500 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Signapore, Mexico City and Toronto. We are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WWE.
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