BERKELEY– Cal senior running back and national honors candidate Patrick Laird announced Friday that he will host the Patrick Laird Summer Reading Challenge beginning June 1 for students currently enrolled in grades 1-6. Participants who complete the challenge by Aug. 24 will get an opportunity to meet Laird and receive four complimentary tickets for Cal's 2018 season-opener against North Carolina at California Memorial Stadium on Sept. 1.

Registration for the Patrick Laird Summer Reading Challenge is open now at Laird's website walkonthenrun.com. Additional information about the reading challenge and contact information to request a visit from Laird to your school can also be found at walkonthenrun.com.

Laird will host a meet-and-greet for all participants who have registered for the reading challenge by April 26 following the Cal Spring Football Game at California Memorial Stadium on Saturday, April 28 (starts at 11 a.m.). He will also visit elementary schools throughout this spring and summer to promote the challenge and meet participants.

Laird is an avid reader who developed his love for reading as a young child with encouragement from his parents and older siblings. He helped shine a light on the importance of reading during the 2017 Cal football season when he routinely celebrated his touchdowns by simulating the reading of a book.

"I was fortunate to grow up in a household with parents and older siblings that encouraged learning and taught the value of reading from a young age," Laird said. "I know that not everyone else is as fortunate and I want to help others to have the same support I did. Summer reading accounts for a significant amount of a student's academic success and neglecting to read over the summer can have a profoundly negative effect. I'm hosting this challenge in order to stop summer learning loss and promote my passion of reading."

"Patrick Laird is everything you want a student-athlete to be both on and off the field," Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. "He has a passion for reading and he wants to reach out and share that passion with others. This reading challenge will be a great vehicle to do that and we will support his efforts."