Airdrie’s Herons Crossing School and Fireside School in Cochrane had some fun competing against each other in a fundraising read-a-thon this school year, with Fireside School finishing with the most reading minutes and funds raised.
All Kindergarten to Grade 8 students and staff from both schools participated in the competition, which started on Jan. 27 and ran until Feb. 27.
Herons Crossing students accumulated a total of 663,649 minutes of reading and raised $10,643.43, while the Fireside students read for a total of 877,530 minutes and raised $18,410.79.
The top individual readers were Natalie Andrews from Herons Crossing and Bella Tanzola from Fireside. Both book worms were at the RVS board meeting on March 24 to share their excitement about the competition with the trustees.
Tanzola said reading is one of her passions, and when she heard about the read-a-thon, she thought, “This is made for me.”
Her Grade 8 class had a friendly competition against the Grade 7 students within their school, and she noticed that all students across every grade were really into the challenge.
“I think our school really likes competition. Personally speaking, I think they were really inspired,” she said.
Tanzola’s initial goal was to read over 1,000 minutes and finish at least one book, which she easily surpassed – in quite the fashion. She ultimately completed 10,869 minutes and read multiple books, including the Hunger Games series.
The top individual fundraiser from Herons Crossing was also at the meeting – Grade 1 student Matilda Anderson.
“I love reading because I love to look at all the cool pictures and read lots of books,” Anderson said.
According to Fireside School staff, the funds raised by their students will directly support their Outdoor Learning Space.
The staff of the school finishing with the fewer reading minutes were subjected to wearing the other school’s colours for a day. They also had to record a music video of them performing the others’ school song, and treat the other school’s staff room with Tim Horton’s treats.
Ward 3 (Airdrie) Trustee Fred Burley was sporting a Fireside Hawks shirt at the board meeting and will later be receiving a pie to the face from Fireside students. He asked Bella Tanzola if she would be doing the honours of throwing the pie in his face, which she showed some interest in.
“I don’t view it as a loss with that many books being read by both schools – it's a win for everybody,” Burley said while showing off his Hawks shirt.
During the read-a-thon, students collected pledges, while teachers and parents helped track the students' reading minutes in school and at home. The progress was tallied on a giant thermometer in each school and on smaller thermometers in each class.
Prizes were given out to the first- and second-place readers in each grade, while the top individual reader became principal for the day. Top fundraisers also received prizes, and the top fundraising class received a pyjama and movie party.
Throughout the competition, there were also plenty of fun activities and incentives to reach certain reading goals.
As students hit reading minute targets, staff pledged to complete various activities or award students with things like dance parties, designing their teacher’s outfits, or pizza parties.
Once students reached 50,000 collective minutes of reading, one teacher was water balloon bombed, and at 100,000 minutes, two teachers were duct-taped to a wall.
Other goals included a school song mash-up by the music teachers, a teacher getting slimed, and several teachers taking pies to the face.
Two teachers even let their class design new tattoos if they made it to 40,000 minutes and beat other classes.
“And yes, the dinosaur and the planet is a real tattoo she agreed to have permanently inked on her body. Leave it to a Grade 8,” said one of the school staff members during the presentation.
School staff added that this initiative was a way to bring together the school and community on a common theme and learning goal of both schools.
