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NUE hosts fourth annual reading celebration
Posted: 2/5/2010 12:04:27 PM
Northwest United Educators held its fourth annual Reading Celebration at the Cedar Mall in Rice Lake on Saturday, January 30. The Reading Celebration is hosted by NUE in cooperation with community businesses and clubs to promote the importance of reading. The Reading Celebration provides a learning environment for kids away from the school setting.
This year NUE partnered with Barron County Safe and Stable Families, Barron Area Literacy Council, Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs of Barron County, Discovery Toys, Girl Scouts of Northwest Great Lakes, Heart Island Family Enrichment Center, Mc Donald’s, Rice Lake Elk’s Lodge #1441, Rice Lake Public Library, RCU and School $ence, Sandcastle Toys hosting the local Therapy Dog and WITC’s Early Childhood program. In addition, NUE school districts of Barron, Lake Holcombe and Rice Lake filled the mall with multiple entries focused on interactive and hands on activities. Students who registered for door prizes and choose the complimentary reading materials came from over 15 of the NUE school districts and area daycare centers.
Kids could make their own legendary red and white Cat’s Hat, participate in a poster contest, learn about financial matters, challenge local librarians on reference topics , become a Olympic reader, make valentines with a foreign language theme, discover more about the Character Counts program, make and take books, make a book crown and much more. There were also guest appearances by the famous Cat in the Hat and friends throughout the day, with photo opportunities available. Mascots from Herberger’s, Elk’s Lodge #1441, and RCU were present adding to the fun of the day. Special guest Ronald Mc Donald performed his magic show and read book selections to a record number of Reading Celebration guests.
The Reading Celebration serves as the official local kick-off to Read Across America on March 2, the day everyone picks up a book and reads in celebration of Theodor Geisel’s birthday, a.k.a Dr. Seuss. Keeping with the theme of the day, the local Elk’s Lodge provided a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast at the mall. The breakfast is inspired by the book, Sam I Am, a Seuss favorite where the character tries to get his friend to eat the aforementioned cuisine.
Face painting was offered and participants were encouraged to bring a book and donate it to NUE school districts sponsoring literacy projects.
There were performances by multiple Rice Lake School district performing groups and Celebrity Readers who shared selections of favorite books. Readers included NUE Secretary- Rice Lake Teacher, Bill Nelson, Rice Lake Mayor-Dan Fitzgerald and Barron County Sheriff-Chris Fitzgerald.
See a slideshow of more pictures from the event below:
