Mike Gregoire, First Gentleman of the state of Washington, joined Kari Ely’s kindergarten class at Rose Hill Elementary School in Kirkland on Oct. 6 to participate in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record.

John Marchione, the mayor of Redmond, joined Monica Peter’s kindergarten class at Redmond Elementary for the event as well.

This program, presented in partnership with the Pearson Foundation, is a world-record-breaking campaign that brings together more than two million children and adults to read the same book on the same day.

The event focuses attention on the importance of early education.Both “First Mike” and Mayor Marchione read the official campaign book, “Llama Llama Red Pajama,” by Anna Dewdney.

Each student received their own copy of the book to take home, courtesy of the Pearson Foundation, which also provided copies of the book for other pre-K and kindergarten classes around Lake Washington School District.

“First Mike” also gave each student a Trooper the First Dog trading card, with information on the Gregoires’ Shiba Inu.