They read Roald Dahl in their driveways and devoured Elephant & Piggie at their dinner tables. They pored over books on park benches on sunny days and by reading light under their covers after dark. They decoded early readers, flipped through picture books, and cracked the spines of modern classics.
The students at Hyer Elementary read a whopping 166,780 minutes during their weeklong reading rodeo, a new record for the annual Read on Hyer fundraiser. Their efforts wrangled up more than $117,000 to support their school.
“Reading is really special to our school and to our teachers, and a lot of our students are already really passionate about reading,” explained Jen Lavelle, who cochaired Read on Hyer with Katrina Bolin.
But Lavelle added that she hadn’t expected students to clock such a large number of reading minutes. “We were just absolutely shocked by how much our students read.”
Hyer celebrated its bookworms’ success during an assembly on Feb. 20. Students danced along with their husky mascot, Balto, clapped, and cheered as the top readers in each grade received trophies and yard signs.
“They were just so excited,” Lavelle said. “And it’s not for a sport. It’s about reading.”
The student who read the most in each classroom was awarded a medal, and the class in each grade that logged the most total minutes earned a pizza party. The teachers whose classes had read the most minutes and raised the most money also received gift cards.
“Every minute mattered. Every book that you read mattered. Every one of you students that picked up a book and read last week made this event a huge success,” said the event’s emcees, Hyer dads Houston Bolin and Kevin Lavelle.
Fourth-grader Blair Hunt read 4,233 minutes to win her grade’s top-reader trophy. Hunt canceled some activities and woke up daily at 6 a.m. to squeeze in extra reading time. On the competition’s final day, she started reading even earlier, at 5 a.m., to maximize her minutes.
It was hard to find time to read so much, but Hunt loves books and was driven to win the top reader trophy.
“People should read a lot,” she said. “It’s very fun.”
The school’s top second-grade reader, Simon Robbins, focused primarily on chapter books, including one of his favorites, The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.
Robbins started reading immediately when he got home from school every day and continued until dinner.
Almost all of Hyer Elementary’s students participated in this year’s reading rodeo. There were some additional prizes for enthusiastic fundraisers and readers, including the opportunity to win a life-sized stuffed husky and prize bundle in Balto’s Big Rodeo Raffle.
Missing this year were smaller prizes that students used to receive when they hit fundraising goals. It turned out that families didn’t need trinkets and toys to persuade them to support their school. Even though the event was focused on encouraging students to read, it also surpassed fundraising records.
“The Hyer community is so festive and fun. And I think that really comes out in an event like this,” Lavelle said. “Everybody just naturally, magically, is ready to achieve, and have fun, and celebrate.”
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