RALEIGH, NC - The National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes today announced a new partnership with Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) and the launch of the "Readvolution" program. The initiative will begin on Monday, Oct. 2, and will celebrate the Hurricanes' 20th anniversary by promoting the WCPSS Vision 2020 Strategic Plan.

"As the Hurricanes approached our 20th anniversary in N.C., we wanted to do something to thank the community that has supported the team for the past two decades," said Carolina Hurricanes President Don Waddell. "We reached out to many civic leaders to find out what the most important needs are in our community. Our goal was to create a legacy program where the Hurricanes could make the biggest impact during our 20-year milestone season."

Readvolution will challenge 114 elementary schools to read 2,020 books, asking individual students to perform 20 minutes of reading outside the classroom each day during the first semester, from Oct. 2 through Jan. 12. Students and teachers will be rewarded as they achieve goals with free tickets to Hurricanes games, school appearances from Stormy and the Storm Squad, teacher recognitions, and more.

"Literacy is a right, not a privilege. But it cannot be assumed. It takes all of us to ensure that our community produces a generation of practiced, literate graduates." said WCPSS Superintendent Dr. James Merrill. "That is why I want to say thank you to the Hurricanes for how they approached this partnership."

As part of the partnership, the Hurricanes, in collaboration with Cengage Learning, created an online tracking system on Hurricanes.com, where students can log in and input their daily reading activity. A Readvolution-themed, life-size hockey goal graphic will be placed inside every school, where students can place paper pucks with the names of the books they have read to track their goal of reading 2,020 books.