PTA

Read-A-Thon at Huff -- Reading for Fun & Profit?

By Ann Rosen

PTA Secretary, Chair for Communications, and parent of two multi-cultural Huff students

Joseph Addison said:  “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”.  Every parent wants their child to grow and learn and reading can open up worlds.  Instilling the love of reading in our children is a goal many of us Huff parents share. 

How can we best inspire our kids to be readers?  We had a lively discussion on this very topic at the recent PTA General Meeting.  We talked about how we can support reading as a community.  A plan was discussed for a Read-A-Thon in association with our upcoming ‘All Star’ Book Fair in October.  The overarching goal of the Read-A-Thon was presented as one combining encouragement of reading by our kids along with fundraising for Huff.  Everybody present seemed to agree that an event to promote reading is desirable.

Then some questions ensued.  Should we be sending the message to our kids that they get “paid” for reading?  Furthermore, is fundraising for the school really going to resonate with our kids as an incentive to read at this event?  Or is the connection between their reading and the fundraising benefiting the school too abstract for kids, especially the younger ones?  Some parents suggested this could be more about a friendly competition between classes, with fun rewards which kids can more readily relate to.  Others felt that fundraising as part of the Read-A-Thon should be directly linked to a specific program or equipment for the school, perhaps a fundraising goal that directly promotes reading.  Others talked about the opportunity for teaching our kids the value of money by virtue of including fundraising.

In the end a decision was made that the Read-A-Thon will include fundraising to support key programs for our kids.  Specifically the funds collected during the Read-A-Thon will be aimed towards supporting the new Destination Imagination program as well as GATE instruction at Huff.

What ideas do you have for a dream Read-A-Thon? Your opinion matters to us and will help shape this Read-A-Thon.

Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.