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Chatter and giggling disrupted the normal classroom activities of Christine Farhat’s fourth grade class on Thursday when three Lely High School football players, clad in their orange and black jerseys, walked into the room.

David Rotkvich, Barry Anderson, Michael Gober and other players arrived to read to students at Tommie Barfield Elementary School as part of Race to Read Week at the school.

Race to Read Week included reading-themed activities every day of the week. Activities included a book fair, a day to read to stuffed animals and a day to eat green eggs and ham – a reference to one of Dr. Seuss’ most popular books.

The festive reading week followed the end of standardized testing for students across Florida.

In Farhat’s classroom, Anderson, a sophomore at Lely High School, read “Pirates Don’t Change Diapers,” by Melinda Long and D. Shannon, with the help of his teammates. The story is about a group of pirates that become babysitters.

The football players’ reading of the book had the students in stitches as they used gruff voices to emphasize the words of the pirates.

Other players came throughout the week to entertain the elementary school students and promote reading.

Most of the football players who came to the school are Marco residents and had attended Tommie Barfield Elementary School when they were younger.

Nick Thorstenson, a sophomore at Lely, said he had fun reading to the students. Not only did he get to play role model to the children, but he also got a day off from classes at Lely High School.

Jade Dillow-Van Gilder, a second-grader at the elementary school, said she was excited to hear the football players read because she’d never met a uniformed player in person.

But it wasn’t just the football players in their jerseys who were dressed up for reading. Thursday was “Dress up like your favorite character from a book” Day in the school’s Race to Read week.

Students and teachers alike came to classes on Thursday dressed up like a myriad of recognizable characters from books.

Fifth-grader Jessica Simon put her hair in pigtails and dotted her face to become Pippy Longstocking from the popular children’s book series by the same name. Ellie Bennet, a fourth grader, pulled her hair up in ribbons above her head to become a Who character from Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears a Who.”

Race to Read Week was not just about encouraging students to read, though – it was also part of a school fundraiser.

According to a Collier County Public Schools press release, students asked for pledges from members of the community based on how long they read throughout the week. Money from Race to Read Week will be used to fund school programs, Media Center supplies and field trips but the most important part of reading week, it seems, was to provide a proper segue between the end of the standardized testing and the spring break which began on March 31.