Students and faculty of Fireside School plan to read from cover to cover this month for the school’s second annual Read-a-thon from Jan. 27 to Feb 27.
The first Read-a-thon took place last year after the school received a challenge from Herons Crossing School in Airdrie to see which could collectively read more minutes in a month.
Assistant principal of Fireside School, Tara Sly, said they accepted the challenge and walked away victorious.
“Our students read 877,430 minutes last year,” Sly said. “We also had a little bit of a side competition with our staff, which was also won, so that was 68,043 minutes that we read.
“So as a school last year, our first Read-a-thon ever, we read for 945,473 minutes.”
Sly said that literacy is a cornerstone of purpose and community in the halls and classrooms of Fireside School. Alongside herself, she said school principal Dave Banderk and fellow assistant principal Jason Ness share the same sentiment.
“Literacy has always been a pillar of the building,” Sly said. “After COVID, staff and students were super excited to come together as ‘a community of leaders,’ which is a phrase I shamelessly stole from our top reader last year.”
She gives credit to this year’s theme for the Read-a-thon – Book love, a community of readers – to the top reader of last year’s event, a student named Bella Tanzola.
With over 820 students in the school, all kids from Kindergarten to Grade 8 will participate in this year’s event. Aside from racking up reading minutes, the event also aims to fundraise $10,000 for the school. Last year, the Read-a-thon raised $18,000.
“Each student has a pledge form for Read-a-thon, and they can ask their parents, family, neighbours, and other members of our community if they would like to sponsor them in one flat fee or per minute of reading,” Sly said.
The money raised from this year’s event will be returned to the school to add features to an outdoor learning space that will be built behind the school in the spring. What those features include is to be determined by how much is raised and how it will add to the design of the space.
But while raising money is an important aspect, the overarching goal of the event is to foster a love for reading and a sense of community.
For the event, two of the school’s top readers of last year’s event in Grade 8 (Bella Tanzola and Jack Mirosh) will be the Super Reader Leaders for the Read-a-thon. The duo’s role will be helping other classes reach their benchmarks and support them through the event.
Tanzola was the school’s top reader last year, with 10,800-plus minutes (180 hours) over the month of Read-a-thon last year.
As an added incentive for students to hit the books this month, 15 community businesses have partnered with Fireside School to sponsor the event, and will provide varying prizes that students can receive after all the minutes have been counted at the final assembly in March, in addition to weekly draws for the readers.
The list of sponsors currently includes Friends of Fireside School, Cochrane Movie House, Found Books, MacKay’s Ice Cream, Calaway Park, Shredz Shop, reet beet Designs, Holliday Collective, Rebel Comics, River Heights Subway, and River Heights Domino’s. Sly said Fireside School is very grateful for these businesses’ support.
“We are so grateful for their support because it allows us to provide opportunities to continue building those connections here, within Fireside School,” Sly said.
The assistant principal said the excitement can already be found throughout the school and classes are filled with kids hit with reader fever.
“[The students] are so happy to show me how many minutes they have read at school or to tell me how many they already read at home, and to share their own reading goals with me,” Sly said. “It’s so amazing to see that, as assistant principal.”
As a former English teacher at Bow Valley High School, she said reading is one of her favourite things to do and is proud to help others build a love for literacy.
“It makes my heart extremely happy and I feel very lucky for the privilege of working with the students and staff here because they just take it and run with it,” Sly said. “And I know they can make it something more amazing than I can dream of.”
For members of the community who wish to get involved with Fireside School’s Read-a-thon this month, Sly invites them to contact her by calling the school directly at 403-932-4868.
