Thursday, August 7, 2008

Reading Rocks, Part II

WOW! It's done! It was a fantastic party! All but 6 of the 51 kids invited showed up! The place was hopping! The party started at 6:30 pm with dinner. Andy was great and made up all the food alongside of his Teen Club duties! He's such a great hubby! While the kids sat and ate their dinner they watched a slide show of pictures taken throughout the month of Reading Rocks. The kids always get a kick out of seeing themselves up on the screen.

After dinner we went into another room to hand out their achievement certificates with the number of points they earned. Meet the top points earner for Reading Rocks with 625 points!
I am so proud of her! She worked so hard. The child I thought would never read is now reading and winning awards for doing so! She was thrilled beyond belief!

Matthew also received a Fruit of the Spirit Award, Great Focus! I am proud of him, too, as focusing can be a difficult thing for him, especially when it comes to reading! He also did well, earning 351 points.

After the awards were handed out the kids went out to the playground and were called in order of points earned to choose their backpacks and receive their school supplies and socks and underwear! They get three pairs of each to start off their new school year - it sounds silly, but we all need them, right?!?! It was a lot of fun handing the kids their bags and seeing the smiles as they looked at all the goodies. It certainly made all the running around worth it!
After everyone received their things, we took a group picture and they were out the door. Carisa took pictures of parents picking up their kids. Do you see the smiles on the parents faces? Not only do the kids have the joy of new school supplies, but the parents receive a financial blessing as getting ready for school can be a stressful time for them. It's really a win-win situation for everyone. We get the joy of helping kids keep up important reading skills while reading quality Christian books, the kids get the benefit of starting off school with reading still intact and new supplies, and parents are helped financially as well as helping to keep their kids off the streets.

It was a great party and a wonderful program this summer. Thanks again to all who helped! We really couldn't have done it without you!

1 comment:

Julie said...

What a great idea!