‘I’ll do it to the day I retire’ | Allendale Principal reading to students online every week for six years [Video]

ALLENDALE, Mich. — “Am I nervous about the first day of school? I mean, sure! After all, have you ever seen how slowly sloths walk? Like, I probably should have left yesterday,” read Principal Blake Smolen in the voice of a cartoon sloth, from the book First Day Critter Jitters. 

“It’s kind of funny. I feel like kind of a celebrity at times,” said Smolen. “Because all these kids, ‘I saw you on TV, I saw you in my mom’s phone,’ and it makes me feel good, but I just want to be there for the kids, for the families, to get them to develop that love of books and love of reading.”

Smolen began posting videos on his YouTube channel of him reading a children’s book …