Baseball ISN’T the Only Place in Life where a Sacrifice is Appreciated


State representative Randy Nix, Education Committee member and chair of Georgia’s Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Committee, reflected, at the Get Georgia reading Community Action Summit, on a life lesson he got from coaching his son’s baseball team, and applied it to getting kids on the path to literacy. He tells about a ragtag bunch of 7- and 8-year-olds who the other coaches passed on because they couldn’t hit or field, and went on to an 11-and-1 season. He said they won the league that year because nobody told them they couldn’t win.

“You never know,” said Nix, “what a little bit of time, a lot of believing, a little bit of motivation, and a ride home may mean in the life of a child. Sometimes all you have to do is show them what winning looks like and they’ll do the rest.”

Watch Nix tell his inspiring story and then share it with all the other coaches in your community who are helping kids win in sports, school, and growing up.

These lightning talks from the Community Action Summit sparked our imagination, priming us to roll up our sleeves and work out a plan that will get all Georgia’s kids on a path to reading. We’re compiling the ideas and insights that came out of the Summit, and will soon begin to create a community toolkit to support our partners as they firmly root the Get Georgia Reading Campaign’s common agenda in communities across the state.

Go back and watch the first video in this series, featuring Sandra Deal. Promoting literacy has been one of her top priorities in her role as Georgia’s first lady.