Falcons star delivers 5,000 books with an urgent warning

The Scholastic book fairs back in grade school, they were one of the most fun events of the school year. Imagine if Bijan Robinson was the one giving you that book or reading it to you. Olivia Whitmire has that story as we rise up for Atlanta, brought to you by Truist. Kids all over Atlanta know the name Bijan Robinson. They know him as the Falcons star, one of the best players in the NFL. But for Bijan, it's much more important that they know him as a regular guy and he cares about much more than just football. And this week, he reminded elementary schoolers across the city how important literacy is. You know I want to really help Atlanta and Atlanta kids in the city be at their best and become their best self because I know that they have so much potential to do so many great things in this world. With the help of his foundation, Robinson hosted Bijan Reads Day, a program that aims to inspire a love of reading while providing young students with the tools they need to succeed. 5,000 third grade students across Atlanta public schools got some new books a literacy playbook to work on and more and some lucky students got a surprise visit from number seven himself last year where i said you know when they're low in reading and low in literacy then there's a high likelihood that they you know will either be in prison or that they'll be homeless for them and the kids in the city like to to enjoy it and to love it now at this age um is really important i know they all want to they all have dreams. They all were telling me like when they want to grow up they want to do something big and you know be a part of something big so you know it starts now. It might be easy for some of these students to look at Bijan and say hey I want to be a football player like you one day. Reading can't be that important but he'll be the first to tell them that's far from the truth no matter what they want to be one day. What they're working on right now in the classroom is the key to success. They got to understand like I didn't just get here by just playing football every single day and not going to school starting now at a young age and enjoying it and understanding it and even reading like children's books that obtain to what they want to be and what they want to do it's just it's very important reporting in Atlanta for Rise Up Tonight I'm Olivia Whitmire