MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Reading can do more than just change lives, it actually has the power to transform them.

That was the crux of the message Wednesday morning from New England Patriot, former Georgia Bulldog, and Valdosta native Malcolm Mitchell when he gave the opening address at the second annual Governor’s Summit on Early Language and Literacy. 

The two-day summit is being hosted by The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy at Georgia College, which opened last year.

Mitchell shared his literacy journey with educators, community members, and postsecondary professionals that were present at the opening session of the annual summit. That journey saw him go from being a young man who could only read at a middle school level when he was in college to being named the 2016 Children’s Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association after publishing his first book, “The Magician’s Hat” in 2015. Now the NFL wide receiver champions literacy everywhere he goes, speaking to children and sharing his message about the important role reading has played in his life. 

The published author and professional football player told the audience about his early life growing up in south Georgia and Florida before football or reading played significant roles in his life. He remembers struggling to find food to eat, moving around to different homes, and watching his mother try to make ends meet for the family. After her application for public housing was denied, she reached out to nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity so she and her children could have a home to call their own and Habitat accepted the application.

“That’s another big moment in my life because just like I saw her sacrificing to make sure we ate while she didn’t, she was able to get back up after being denied something,” Mitchell said. 

Once he reached high school Mitchell decided that he was done with football after having played in middle school. He got into some serious trouble when he chose to participate in senior skip day when he was only a freshman. One bad decision turned into another as Mitchell borrowed a friend’s car well before he had his driver’s license. Mitchell wrecked the vehicle, and the consequence was a one-month stay in a youth detention center where his mother visited him every week to remind her son that she was there for him.

Mitchell decided to go back out for football his junior year and quickly got the attention of some of the biggest college football schools in the country. The next year was, as he said, “more of the same” with colleges constantly reaching out trying to get him to wear their colors on the football field. Mitchell was named an Under Armour All-American and decided to stay in-state to attend the University of Georgia where he finished his college career as a top-10 receiver in program history. 

Through all his success he never forgot the effort his mother put forward to do everything she could for her children or how his older brother kept him away from the negative things he was doing. 

Fairly early on in his educational journey at Georgia, Mitchell said he realized he wasn’t where he needed to be as a reader and cited a few examples including not being able to keep up with the subtitles in a movie. After watching interviews featuring some people he looked up to in life he quickly realized that they all had something in common.

“They were all talking about books,” Mitchell said, “so I needed to introduce a book into my life.” 

He grabbed a book recommended by one of his role models and said he couldn’t get off the first page, so he took a step back and began reading children’s books. 

“And eventually, just like when you practice football, I started reading and I was able to make my way up to more difficult books,” he recalled. 

Mitchell wanted to share his reading experience, so the UGA wide receiver famously joined a book club with a group of women that were, needless to say, much different from the people he was accustomed to hanging out with. 

“Football changed my life, but reading transformed it. … I sit here today not because I play football. That’s the message that I’m really, really trying to send,” he said.

“Reading is the key to looking beyond whatever situation that I’m placed in. Reading is the key to thinking bigger, to grow, to give myself the best opportunities, and to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way.”

Football may have taken Mitchell from Valdosta to Athens and later to Boston, but he contends that reading has taken him much further, which is the message he spreads to young people who may have the wrong priorities. 

Last year Mitchell signed a three-book deal with Scholastic to continue his successful career as a children’s writer.

The Sandra Dunagun Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy was created to help find ways to improve the literacy skills of children across the state by providing professional development to organizations that work with kids from birth to 8 years old. The goal of the summit, according to a Georgia College press release, is to celebrate the Center’s progress on that mission as well as bring professionals together to work on the next steps to keep that mission moving forward.

Gov. Nathan Deal and first lady Sandra Deal are scheduled to speak at the summit this morning and also receive the National Pacesetter Award from The Campaign for Grade Level Reading on behalf of the state of Georgia.