March 29, 2000

Read-a-thon raises funds for MS society

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       From "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" to Harry Potter to "Go Dog Go," students at Long Lake Elementary School were cracking the books last week during the school's sixth annual Multiple Sclerosis Read-A-Thon.
      Their three hours of reading will make a difference to 350,000 people in the United States who have Multiple Sclerosis and the 200 more each week who discover they have the illness.
      Students and staff at Long Lake Elementary School have a special incentive to devote themselves to this Read-A-Thon: second-grade teacher Julie Black has struggled with Multiple Sclerosis for 12 years.
      "The students love Julie and this is a way they can help her," said Patty Olson, a teacher at the school who helped organized this year's fund-raiser.
      Since deciding six years ago to participate in the Read-A-Thon in her honor, the students have raised more than $31,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The national society and the Michigan Chapter use the money to fund research to find a cure for MS and to help people and families in need who are struggling with the chronic illness.
      "The first year they did the Read-A-Thon it especially blew me away, they picked it because of me," said Black, a teacher at the school since it opened 28 years ago. "It is wonderful that they have zeroed in on MS, but there are a lot of diseases that have touched people in the school, like some families are dealing with cancer."
      Targeting an ambitious fundraising goal this year of more than $8,500, students hoped to make the school the top Multiple Sclerosis Read-A-Thon fund-raiser in the state for the fifth consecutive year. The students gathered pledges from family members and friends, getting so much money for each hour of reading.
      A few years ago, teachers at the school decided to change the pledges from so much money per book to so much per hour because they wanted to equalize the size of books. Otherwise, students who read longer books could not raise money as quickly as students who read more short, quick books.
      Whatever the formula for calculating the pledges, it is a successful one as students devote themselves to the Read-A-Thon and vie with each other to make the most money from pledges.
      "In past years, we've had students raise more than $500 each," Olson said. "The kids love this day because it is so quiet and they can get into the books. They always ask me after it to do it again."
      For three hours Thursday morning, silence descended over Black's second-grade classroom, despite kids being sprawled randomly in groups or alone all over the floor. Some teachers spread out their three hours of reading over three days, having students read an hour a day, but in the two second-grade classes they do it all in one chunk, with a break every hour. Whispering and fidgeting were rare as the kids curled up with their favorite books, blankets and stuffed animals, brought to school that morning just for the Read-A-Thon.
      "I like Dr. Seuss books best and I brought my pillow and a stuffed bunny," said Taylor Bodenshot, a second-grader in Black's class. "I like reading to raise money for MS and Miss Black."
      As the students read, Black watched from her scooter, which she uses to get around as the disease has limited her mobility over the years. (The scooter is a big hit with the kids, she noted, and winning a ride on it during the second-grade classes' popcorn sales spurs on the top sellers.) She is proud of how these second-graders love to read and that they are doing it for others.
      "The Read-A-Thon was just a natural thing for our school to do," Black said. "These kids love to read. When they finish their work the immediately ask if they can go get a book. Even children with reading difficulties still like books."