“This is the biggest robot ever made,” Rick Abel told kindergartener Yuuki Kloppenstein as he turned the pages of the National Geographic Kids book “Robots.”

Abel was among community members and Mazama High School students who volunteered Wednesday to read to students at Stearns Elementary School as part of SMART Reading’s celebration of World Read Aloud Day. World Read Aloud Day, in its 11th year, was recognized today (Feb. 5) in more than 170 countries.