Read-a-Thon Raises $200

The FCHS Media Center held its first-ever Read-a-Thon the week of Feb. 27-March 2 in honor of the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day. The goal is to help get kids excited about reading, so the country celebrates the day on March 2, Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

“For our first year, I felt like the fact that we had a total of 25 readers was a really good number. We’re hoping to start doing it annually and grow,” said Media Center Librarian Shannon Taylor. “We also had students read close to 5000 pages,” added Librarian Ann Jennings. In all, FCHS had 25 students pay $1 to spend 30 minutes in the library reading.

These students read a total of 85 hours, raising just shy of $200. The money will go to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL). Their goal is to foster a love for reading in young children, just like the National Education Association.

“With the funds we raised being matched by a state program, they will have enough money to purchase 160 books for children in our area. This was the first fundraising effort done for Dolly Parton Imagination Library Fluvanna,” said Taylor.

How does the Imagination Library decide on which books to purchase for area schools? According to Jennings, a panel of childhood literacy experts select books from hundreds of submitted titles. Then the Imagination Library takes the donations from the schools and the state program and buys books to donate to the libraries, which include the one at FCHS.

The Read-a-Thon isn’t the only event happening in the library this year. “We are talking about doing a book bowl, which is a quiz event kind of like the ACE team, but with books and authors,” said Taylor. They are hoping to hold that event on or around March 31, the last day of school before spring break.