“Booking it for the Bears” assembly kicks off elementary school reading program
While LZHS students sat down Friday for their fourth period class, hundreds of smiling fourth and fifth graders were greeted by cheerleaders, the pep band, and members of the boys varsity basketball team as they filed into the fieldhouse.
The assembly was made not only for future Bears to watch the basketball team, but also to spark excitement and determination for the students to reach a lofty goal: one that would take 1,200 minutes to complete.
The “Booking it for the Bears” assembly is a kick off event before elementary age students start to participate in reading twenty hours by February. The students who are able to reach this goal can bring their families to a boys basketball game for free and will be able to cheer on the players they saw shoot trick-shots at the high school.
“The first [goal] is what you saw today which is that they can have an excitement about not only coming to the high school and meeting high school kids, but also an excitement about reading which is the ultimate goal,” Chris Martelli, May Whitney principal, said. “We have run this program before and have had parents tell us that because the kids saw that small piece of the basketball game and had the anticipation [to see a full game], it turned some kids on to reading that had not been interested before, and that’s really important for the program.”
Along with basketball, the assembly also included a spoken word piece performed by Poetry Club about the importance of reading and the expanded imagination that comes with it.
“If you start reading at a young age, you start reading more, and you are able to pick apart pieces of literature better when you’re older. Plus, it’s just a lot of fun,” Megan Groeller, senior Poetry Club member, said. “I hope that the kids see that reading is important and that it isn’t something dumb that their teachers are forcing them to do but something that is actually enjoyable.”
After the Poetry Club presentation, Luke Kuhn and Michael Bens, senior basketball players, as well as Bridget Tuckey, senior cheerleader, spoke to the group about their favorite books and the importance of strengthening your mind like athletes strengthen their bodies.
The assembly concluded with the basketball team members taking trick-shots while the pep band played and kids cheered and stomped in support.
“[My favorite part was] probably watching Ryan Kutsor dunk because he’s a good player,” Jonathan Fleaka, fifth grader at May Whitney, said. “I play basketball and I want to play like him when I’m older.”
When asked if he could complete the twenty hours of reading, Fleaka responded with a confident “Oh yeah!”: however, his classmate Cason Gwizdala, fifth grader, knows that the reading will take a lot of hard work.
“Maybe if I try really hard and don’t give up I can do it,” Gwizdala said. “Maybe.”
Madison is on both the basketball and soccer teams, and she spends most of her summer working as a camp counselor in Wisconsin. She has been a staff member...
