Hartford Public School students who excelled in a reading initiative organized through UConn’s Husky Sport program visited campus on Monday for a recognition of their accomplishments.

The Read & Raise Initiative involves students from three Hartford Public Schools (Clark, ML King, and Wish) in a literacy skill-building effort. During a four-month period, about 1,200 students from the three schools read more than 43,300 books. In the four years since the initiative was launched, Hartford students have read more than 167,000 books; and in two years, the reading scores of third graders increased 14 percent, partly due to activities such as this.

The top two reading classes at each school, the top student from each class in grades 2 through 6, and the top five middle school readers from each school were invited to attend Monday’s event.

The Husky Sport program is a collaboration of Hartford schools, community partners, and UConn students and volunteers, who collectively build positive relationships in the North End of Hartford. It focuses on healthy nutrition; relevant and transferable life skills such as respect, communication, leadership; exposure to varied sports and physical activities; and academic opportunities and excellence.