Brown races into reading

It's not easy to get kids excited about reading at this time of year.

With fewer than two weeks to go to the end of school, students have other activities on their minds, such as swimming, riding their bikes and playing outside.

That's not been the case at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School, where students have kept their noses in books and recently logged 158,365 minutes, or 2,639 hours, of reading.

For the past month, the school has been engaged in its annual spring reading program. Each week students and classrooms competed to see who could read the most minutes.

Last year, students read nearly 120,000 minutes.

To reward the 362 students for their hard work and participation, Reading Recovery teachers Bridget Longmeier and Aimee Lovegrove organized an awards program Monday where the top readers competed in a race, received prizes autographed by

NASCAR driver Ryan Newman and could meet Seymour native "Two Foot Fred," Fred Gill, who performs with country music act Big and Rich.

This year's theme was "Race into Reading."

"I think this is great," Gill said of the day. "Anything we can do to get kids reading and get them excited about reading is something we want to do."

Gill encouraged students to have a lifelong interest in reading.

"Reading is so important," he said. "It's going to help you get where you want to go in life."

The students also took part in the school's 26th annual balloon launch that day, releasing around 425 balloons into the sky. Students who read at least 90 minutes were allowed to launch a black or white balloon, and the top readers in each classroom launched two.

A tag was attached to each balloon, telling the name of the person launching it, the day and time it was launched and asking the finder to return the tag with a message of when and where it was found. Students will write to those who return them.

"We've had some come back from as far away as Florida and even out West somewhere," longtime school secretary Carol Bell said.

Longmeier said the program is a tradition that students and staff look forward to annually.

"We really stressed reading at home and reading for fun this year," Longmeier said of the program. "Because so many kids aren't doing that."

Maiya Mahoney, 8, was one of the top readers. She read 800 minutes.

"I really like reading," Mahoney said. "Because I like to write stories and by reading, it gives me ideas."

Mahoney said some of her favorite books are the Junie B. Jones and Amber Brown series.

She also enjoyed Monday's awards ceremony and activities.

"It was a lot of fun," she said. "I got a trophy with racecar chocolate and a hat signed by Ryan Newman."

Trista Phillips, 11, and Harsh Patel, 11, also read 800 minutes and received prizes Monday.

"I read mystery books," Phillips said. "I like to read because it keeps my mind open."

Phillips enjoyed the race between the top two classes and even cheered on her sister, Bridget.

As for receiving an autographed hat from Newman, Phillips said she didn't really know who he was before but liked that he helped animals through the Ryan Newman Foundation. "I like animals too, so I thought that was cool," she said.

Patel said his favorite genre is fantasy.

"Like the Harry Potter books," he said. "I've read all those. Reading is good because you can learn new things and it helps with my imagination and being creative."

To get Newman, a friend of Gill's, to donate prizes, the school had to raise money for his foundation, which focuses on assuring adequate care is provided for unwanted dogs and cats in shelters and pounds.

Instead of asking the students and their families to raise the money, the school collected $1,800 in donations from local businesses, including The Brooklyn Pizza Company, Regruth Imagery, Gill Enterprises, The Bryan Bowman Group and Wal-Mart Distribution Center.

Top 2 classrooms

Regruth/Nichols - 14,860 minutes

Dart - 12,140 minutes

Top readers

Sarah Ball, Emily Green, Nicholas Perez, Dominick Brock, Alexis Domingues, Matthew Keith, Mitchell Luetke, Kelsey Lamaster, Elizabeth Lantzy, Madison Lambert, Jessica Jones, Amber Casullo, Jessica Godine, Taleigha Johnson, Josh Jackson, Brooke Wooley, Maiya Mahoney, Dimple Patel, Alexis Keith, Alyssa Lennon, Cheyenne Schroeder, Reagan Gingery, Krista Garza, Wynonna Rude, Kaitlyn Bishop, Faith Laiz, Hope Hunt, Heather Altepeter, Harsh Patel, Chris Stover, Trista Phillips, Kimberly Hunt, Isiah Burnett, Sierra Wingham, Henry Hales and Anne Lenart.