Every year when School-Force kicks off its annual Reading Power Read-a-thon, elementary school students throughout the Betlmont-Redwood Shores School District dive into new books and dust off old favorites. This is School-Force’s second-biggest annual fundraiser (after Annual Giving), and is the perfect opportunity to get family, neighbors, and friends involved in our children’s education!  Besides raising needed funds for School-Force, Reading Power promotes a love of reading. In 2011, Belmont-Redwood Shores students read over 1,500,000 minutes during the two-week event and raised a record $217,000 for the School-Force Education Foundation.  What an amazing accomplishment!

Fox's dragon in 2011.

Thanks to the sponsorship from extended family, friends, and neighbors, including supporters outside the US, each of the district’s elementary schools have helped save classroom teachers’ jobs and other positions such as reading and science specialists and the upper-grade music instructors. 

The kids have a great time while raising money.  Hitting a reading milestone earns a student a dragon scale to place on a display and to enter into random drawings for small but much-sought-after prizes. At some schools, students enjoy pajama reading nights or small prizes awarded by “secret spotters” who see kids reading. Other top prizes awarded to individual readers and classrooms have included Baskin-Robbins ice cream certificates, pizza parties, smoothie parties, Bounce U parties, certificates for Malibu mini-golf, Full Cast Audio audiobook sets, book store certificates and even an iPod nano!

Central students earned dolphins for their Dolphin Ocean in 2010.

Top readers at each school read thousands of minutes each and sometimes give up activities, including watching TV, to reach their reading goals during the two-week event. Hundreds of children read their way into the “Thousand Minute Club.” The Club is a great motivator, earning children a special certificate and an appearance in the annual club photo. Some students discover a love of reading that they didn’t know they had.The Annual Reading Power Read-a-thon couldn’t happen without the many volunteers who organize, tally minutes, pass out prizes, plan parties, count donations and enter it all into the database. And many thanks to all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, friends and parents who sponsor a child for the Read-a-thon. You are not only helping to fund personnel and programs in the district but encouraging a child to read.  Although parents may want to support their children’s reading efforts, School-Force, while welcoming all donations, encourages parents to make their primary donation ($1,200 per child) to the main Annual Giving Campaign.Don’t delay… get your nose in a book today!