Thanks to the energetic pursuit of Reading is Fundamental as a source, Lion John Menken led the drive to put individual books in the hands of students in three school districts: Moultonborough Central School, Sandwich Central School, and Tuftonboro Central School. It was a lengthy process that involved much communication between John and the reading specialists and principals at the schools and putting up with a lot of computer difficulties and ordering snafus from the site we used to purchase the books. But finally, the orders for all three schools came in and had their “Gift from the Moultonborough Lions Club” sticker attached, and were ready to be distributed.
On Tuesday, June 7, President Jeni, John, and Sally went to Moultonborough Central School to hand out 158 books to students in Pre-K through grade 6, after posing for a photo op with the Principal, Kathleen D’Haene and the Reading Specialist, Carissa O’Gara (she is wearing the yellow shirt that is very similar to John’s Lion shirt).
Then on Tuesday, June 14, we traveled to Tuftonboro Central School where John, Mark, Kathy and Peter Allen, and Sally distributed 67 books to students in grades K through 3. In the photo with the rainbow and sun you will note (on the left next to John and going to the right): Diane Wheeler, Reading Specialist, Andrea Fournier, Principal, and Jane Meagher, Reading Associate.
On Wednesday, June 15, John, Peter and Sally arrived at the Sandwich Central School to deliver 79 books to each of the students in the school (grades K through 6). The panoramic photo is of all the Sandwich students in the gym after they selected their books.
The very best thing about giving the books to the young students was their appreciation. Upon getting their book, each one immediately opened in and began to read (or in the case of the younger students) or to look at the animal pictures. The theme for all the books at Moultonborough was animals and that was particularly appropriate for the third graders who were just finishing up a unit on endangered animals. It was a joy to see their joy and to continue to promote reading as a life-long pleasure. A similar giving out of books in Tuftonboro was done by a certain book for each student in a specific grade. In Sandwich the classroom teachers attempted to personalize book choices for each student (as much as we could do with the ups and downs of the computer ordering process).