AMHERST, Wis. (WSAW) - Reading is fun. It can take you to magical worlds or on daring adventures all from the comfort of your couch. Sometimes, it’s hard to get your kid to believe that.
Luckily, parents of Amherst Elementary kids won’t have to. On Thursday, a very special celebrity did it for them.
“I’ve known him since he was in kindergarten and he’s just a really great kid and he’s creative and he still is,” Principal Sherry Oleson said.
Fourth grader Hunter Held was the first to guess the masked reader. Though he’s a man of few words, he did have a few about meeting NFL lineman and Amherst Elementary alum, Tyler Biadasz.
“It’s pretty cool, most people don’t get the chance,” Hunter said.
“The kids were so excited, the teachers were excited to see him,” Oleson added. “It was just, it was a really cool experience.”
More than just cool, this event is front and center in giving kids a valuable reminder.
“It’s just the importance of just learning and but also spreading joy and like love across America,” Biadasz said.
Tyler’s visit is a crowing jewel in the school’s mission to prove reading is fun.
“We have special weeks like this and we do ‘Masked Reader’ and we do trivia events and we do dress-up days,” Oleson shared. “It’s to get everyone excited about reading.”
In addition to learning about glue, this visit let Tyler give back to the school and the people that gave so much to him, while sharing some advice with the kids.
“Finding your passion, having fun with it, working hard and enjoying the whole process and the whole journey, because I would say the whole thing for me is just learning from a lot of people in my profession is like, the journey is the best part,” Biadasz said.
“So don’t forget to smile as Coach Lucic would always tell me to do,” he told the kids.
“His football camp was pretty fun and I learned a lot,” Hunter added.
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