PETERBOROUGH — Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders and Principal Colleen Roy are pleased to announce that Greenfield Elementary School recently held a Read-a-thon event in conjunction with National Read Across America Day.
The Read-a-thon kicked off on March 1 and ended on March 15. Students read for a total of 6,748 minutes during the initiative, raising over $1,500 thanks to online donations from families and friends who sponsored individual readers and classes.
Over the course of the two-week event, community members were invited to visit classrooms as guest readers.
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Greenfield Police Officer Frank Shea read “Green Eggs and Ham” to kindergarten and first-grade students. Tom and Claudia Sysyn also read to second graders and shared Irish music with them.
Other guest readers were Carele Mayer, who volunteers in Kindergarten classes every year, Brighid Wood from Stephenson Memorial Library, GES Custodian Chris Gagnon, GES Nurse Martha Pitt and ConVal School Board Member Katharine Heck.
Families and friends supported the efforts by reading with students at home as well. Students logged their reading time online through personal read-a-thon pages.
“Thank you to all of the students, staff and community members for making this event so fun and successful. It was a great way to bring students and the community together to encourage building reading and literacy skills,” Principal Roy said.
About National Read Across America Day
Launched in 1998 by the National Education Association (NEA) and guided by a committee of educators, NEA’s Read Across America is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. This program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources that are about everyone, for everyone. This year, National Read Across America Day was held on March 2.
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