ROBO'S READERS A GREAT SUCCESS

by Samantha Sulewski

The pizza party that took place at Evans Falls Elementary on March 10th was to be expected. Mrs. Kaufer’s first grade class was determined to read more books than any other class participating in the Robo’s Reader Program.

The Robo’s Readers Program (formerly known as the All-Star Reading Program) encourages students to enhance their education by reading as many books as possible.

Robo’s Readers pays tribute to former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defensemen Darcy Robinson (2001-05), who passed away last year. Despite suffering from dyslexia his entire life, the former player was an advocate of reading. During his time with the Penguins, he regularly visited local schools to stress the importance of education.

As an incentive, the students received a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins ticket voucher for every ten books that they read. With approximately 10,600 students participating in 40 schools, nearly 70,000 books were read.

Furthermore, upon completion of the program, the classroom that read the most books between November 10th and January 30th was to be rewarded with a pizza party (with special guests Tux and select Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ players).

Perhaps this was the greatest motivation for Mrs. Kaufer’s first grade class. The six and seven year olds read a total of 3,718 books, and according to Penguins Radio Broadcaster, Scott Stuccio, “the kids were the winners by a long shot”.

As promised, the students got their pizza party. Connor James, Dustin Jeffrey, Mark Letestu and Dave Gove were in attendance to help reward the students for their determination. The players interacted with the excited kids in the gymnasium, and autographed any items that they may have had. And let’s not forget about Tux, who shared pizza and laughs with the kids as they celebrated their hard work (the mascot might have been the focal point of the whole event).

Mrs. Kaufer said that the kids were deliriously excited when they found out that they won. But how exactly did she get the kid’s to read so many books?

She said that the students were given a homework assignment to read two books every night, and a chart was used in the classroom to help track the student’s involvement. Mrs. Kaufer continued by stating that the parents played a major role. “At this age, we depend a lot on family involvement”.

Even though this years Robo’s Readers Program has ended, this first grade class at Evans Falls Elementary has no intentions of stopping. By the end of the school year, the class hopes to read 10,000 books. If this past competition is any indication of what the students can do, there is no doubt that these kids will reach their goal.