To encourage reading in younger children as the school year draws closer, a barber in Dubuque, Iowa was giving out free haircuts to the children. The catch? The children had to read him a story while he gave them a haircut.

During the second annual Back to School Bash, held in Comiskey Park, Courtney Holmes was part of a group of individuals that gave back to the students as the school year drew closer.

According to the Associated Press, Courtney just wanted children to read. “It’s great. All the kids, they want to have a good haircut going back to school,” says Caitlyn Daniels, another of the supporters of the bash. She assisted any children who struggled with reading while they sat in the barbers chair. “They’re paying through reading.”

With digital distractions playing a major role in childrens’ lives in what’s coined as the digital age, children are just not interested in reading and it’s getting more difficult to pique their interest.

In a study performed by Common Sense Media in May of 2014, which operates a non-profit organization out of San Francisco, their research shows that when children hit their teenage years, their interest wanes in reading.

The study compares reading rates of children from 1984 to today. According to the data, 70 percent of 13 year olds and 64 percent of 17 year olds were consuming a form of written media throughout the week. Compared to 2014, where the rates dropped to 53 percent and 40 percent respectively, keeping teenagers interested in reading has gotten more and more difficult.

With the vocabulary of these teenagers becoming more diminished as their reading levels drop as well as the impact being felt across the schooling of the students, keeping them interested in reading and continually reading is a task that one person has taken upon themselves in a way that gives back to the work they’ve done.