Schools

Lawrence Road read-a-thon promotes literacy and charity

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Sixth grade students at Lawrence Road Middle School are taking part in a new reading initiative aimed at fostering a love of reading while giving back to the community. The school kicked off its new “Read-a-Thon” with a week-long celebration of reading.

The initiative, which began on Jan. 21, encourages students to seek sponsors for the minutes they read over the next two months, with a goal of reaching 160,000 minutes grade-wide by March 21, Sarah Di Russo, reading teacher at Lawrence Road, said. The funds that are raised will be donated to the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, an organization that helps those experiencing homelessness, as well as assisting Lawrence Road students currently facing difficult circumstances.

“We’re focusing on the sixth grade to build a community of readers, and we also wanted to come up with an idea of giving back to the community,” Di Russo said. “So we are doing the Read-a-Thon also where they are able to get sponsors for their reading and collect money that we will donate to both the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, as well as for our own students at Lawrence road that are currently experiencing hard times.”

As part of the introductory Reading for a Cause Kick-Off Week, students were introduced to reading logs and given the chance to join a book talk with principal Mark McCaw, who is leading a discussion on the novel “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds. Students were encouraged to dress up as their favorite literary characters on Wednesday, where costumes ranged from Harry Potter to Percy Jackson characters.

On Thursday, former Harlem Globetrotter Corey “The Dribbler” Rich joined the students for an inspiring presentation about his journey to professional basketball. He emphasized the importance of reading, personal integrity and hard work to the students, according to Di Russo, sharing how he achieved his dream of joining the Harlem Globetrotters through not only his devotion to basketball, but also through being a good person and giving back to the community. 

“So he really was trying to instill the reading and being a good person into all of the students,” Di Russo said. “It was one of the best assemblies that I’ve ever seen here at Lawrence Road.”

The week culminated with a school-wide “Drop Everything and Read” session on Friday afternoon, where all students took 20 minutes to read for enjoyment.

The initiative welcomes friendly competition. The sixth-grade classes are competing against each other to read the most minutes, with the winning class receiving a party of their choice, whether it be pizza or ice cream.

This year marks the first time the school has implemented the reading fundraiser, but Di Russo said the school hopes that it will grow in future years to include more grade levels.

“We are hoping to build upon it and to do it with sixth grade and seventh grade next year, so that this could be something that we do every year,” she said.

The Read-a-Thon will run through March 21, with students encouraged to continue tracking their reading progress and fundraising efforts. A progress thermometer will be displayed in the school lobby to keep everyone motivated and informed of how close they are to reaching their collective goal.