Local heroes dropped everything to read in Kamloops classroom Monday in support of School Library Day.

Blazer hockey players and Kamloops firefighters joined students in 21 Kamloops-Thompson School District schools who were participating in national Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) day to encourage families to read together on a daily basis.

Reading stimulates children’s creativity and imagination.

Just ask seven-year-old Dufferin Elementary student Hailey Tilburt.

“Sometimes I can see pictures in my head when I read,” she said.

Her classmate Nathan Price gets inspired to draw the pictures in his mind while reading his favourites like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants.

And it should be remembered that libraries are a key piece of that enjoyment of literacy among kids, said Rick Rhynolds, Dufferin librarian.

“D.E.A.R. is a time to profile all the services libraries provide to patrons, and the patrons here are the students, and to celebrate reading,” said Rhynolds.

The theme of this year’s D.E.A.R. celebration is “Libraries Connect,” which helps to promote the idea that the services they offer will live on well into the future, whether through traditional book borrowing or ebooks as well as through computer instruction.

“It’s not just reading books but accessing information online and instructing around that whole aspect of reading,” said Rhynolds. “Quality of reading, evaluating websites, what are biases, all those kind of things. And I certainly see the library as being the key piece in providing that instruction.”