With the Winter Olympic Games having recently taken place, organizers decided to try something different this time and theme the program and festivities around this special athletic event.

This year’s program invited the students to celebrate over the course of a 21-day program. The goal was to get students more interested in books and infectiously spreading enthusiasm all around the school. The students were able to total 83,000 combined minutes of reading in this time, which comes to about 1,400 hours. The love for the program quickly spread as expected, drawing in about 87% of students to participate. One such student was fifth grader Myla Sipe. Sipe stated that she would read until losing track of the overall minutes each week, and noted what a love she has for the fun of the program.

“What I love most about this is that it didn’t just stay in the classroom. It went home with our students. Families were reading together, talking about books, and making that time count,” said Principal Sonja DuBois. “That’s really what builds a lasting love of reading. And when we saw the final total, it was honestly hard to believe. 83,000 minutes is just an amazing accomplishment for our school community.”

Each week of the challenge saw various awards that students would also be able to earn depending on their participation during the week. The three different types of awards would earn students one of the three places on a winners podium. The bronze award was for those that had completed at least 50 minutes of reading that week, the silver was for surpassing the baseline goal of 75 minutes, and golf was for showing dedication with at least 100 minutes of reading from that week.

Students playing a game of curling.

The program concluded with a special morning of fun involving the Winter Olympics theme. The school was transformed into an Olympic Village of sorts, allowing students to participate in the game they had read so much about. The Olympic Flare event was the finale, which saw the students competing in curling competitions and high-speed hockey relays. Additionally, the days saw craft stations set up all around to allow the students to create custom bracelets, keychains, or bookmarks to celebrate the participation.

“Opportunities like PARP help reinforce the importance of reading both in school and at home. Throughout the program, it was clear that students were engaged and really enjoying the experience–from the daily reading to the competitive Olympic-themed activities at the end. We also saw strong participation from families, and as we know that partnership is an important part of building consistent reading habits beyond the school day,” said Superintendent Joshua Liddell. “I am so grateful for the teachers, staff and parents who worked so hard to ensure the program was successful.”

Students showing off the custom bracelets made at some of the craft stations.

A student showing off a custom made bookmark from one of the craft stations.