Celebrity Read-Aloud at Bangor Mall Saturday

James Sappier hopes that an event being held Saturday will open some ears.

Sappier, the governor for the Penobscot Indian Nation, will be one of a dozen readers taking part in the Celebrity Read-Aloud, which will be 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Center Court of the Bangor Mall.

The event, sponsored by the Community Relations Department of the Bangor Daily News, is to help celebrate International Literacy Day. Literacy Volunteers of America (Bangor) will have a booth at the event.

Sappier hopes Read-Aloud will steer some people back to reading from television and other distractions of the video age.

“This listening ear has been deaf for a long time,” said Sappier. “Comprehension requires the total being to be involved in each sentence.”

Sappier got involved with the event because he remembered when Agnes Beckwith, who started Literacy Volunteers in Maine, came to Indian Island to teach literacy volunteers 20 years ago. Sappier was a member of that class.

Each of the celebrity readers will read for 15 minutes. From 1:15 to 1:30 p.m., Sappier will read from “Knots on a Country Rope” by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. Sappier said the story tells of a conversation between an old Indian man and a young boy.

Sappier said that the biggest literacy problem facing his people, as well as the public at large, is that of comprehension, understanding what’s being read.

“That means picking up a different document and trying to understand it,” he said. “Every discipline today has a different language. Literacy has to be a priority issue, to understand what’s going on around us.”

Celebrity Read-Aloud schedule: 11-11:15 a.m., Bud Leavitt, columnist, Bangor Daily News, “The Wednesday Surprise;” 11:15-11:30 a.m., John Greenman, producer/Public Affairs, MPBN-TV, “Doctor DeSoto;” 11:30-11:45 a.m., Sister Mary Norberta, president/CEO, St. Joseph Hospital, “Blueberries for Sal;” 11:45-noon, Katharine Ty son, actress, Penobscot Theater Co., “Jennifer and Josephine;” noon-12:15 p.m., W. Tom Sawyer, Bangor mayor, excerpts from “The Witches;” 12:15-12:30 p.m., Elise Gould, Children’s Services, Bangor Public Library, “The Caterpillar & The Polliwog;” 12:30-12:45 p.m., Ron Harriman, Brewer mayor, “Miss Nelson is Missing!;” 12:45-1 p.m., Brownie Schrumpf, columnist, Bangor Daily News, “The Story About Ping;” 1:15-1:30 p.m., James Sappier, governor, Penobscot Indian Nation, “Knots on a Country Rope;” 1:30-1:45 p.m., Sandra Zuk Cyrus, Theater of the Enchanted Forest, “Horton Hatches the Egg;” 1:45-2 p.m., Carolyn Hart, director, Literacy Volunteers of America (Bangor), own selection.