Having her back up against the wall is a good thing in this case for Crofton Elementary School principal Jen Calverley.
She brought a whole new meaning to the term ‘hanging out’ following the Parent Advisory Council’s first-ever Read-A-Thon fundraiser at the school.
Calverley found herself duct-taped to a wall after the school easily surpassed its goal of 60,000 minutes of reading and finished with an amazing total of 93,655 minutes, while raising $2,469.18 in the process from student pledges.
The Read-A-Thon replaced the PAC’s previous Spell-A-Thon event. “They wanted something that would allow more of our kids to participate,” explained Calverley.
The Read-A-Thon went for two weeks and children in kindergarten through Grade 7 aimed for a total of 60,000 reading minutes or 1,000 hours.
“They read at home and at school,” Calverley noted.
“Every child had a personal goal. We came up with a school-wide goal they had to work together to complete.”
The project got off to a rousing start with 30,000 minutes or 500 hours reached in the first week on the Readometre just with reading done at the school and students really picked up the pace during the second week.
Part of the incentive was to see Calverley duct-taped to the wall. That was the lucky incentive pulled out from random ideas during a lunch assembly.
Calverley was willing to stick her neck out for the cause and it wasn’t so bad, she said.
“It was a little nerve-wracking when the tape got a little tighter,” she conceded. “It was a lot of fun, the excitement was high. It was a really wonderful day for everybody.”
Calverley added she wasn’t on the wall too long and “eventually gravity took over.”
In the end, it was a small price to pay for the rewards she witnessed at the end.
“It was really powerful to see the learning we could incorporate into that,” said Calverley. “They don’t realize how much reading they do in any given day.”
Grade 7 student Sydney Lyderik did more than 2,500 minutes on her own. Gift cards were given out to the top reader and fundraiser in each class.
The Read-A-Thon’s wrap-up celebration also included a pizza lunch.
“We had lots of positive feedback from parents,” noted Calverley about the kids working really hard, reading at home and school.
“Next year, the goal’s going to be much higher,” she hinted.