By Rachel Eaton
The Idaho Falls Post Register
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Students at Stoddard Elementary School are fired up and ready to read.
High-pitched cheering and hand clapping filled the gymnasium as Blackfoot firefighter Tony Catt went over the ground rules for the Blackfoot Firefighters’ Reading Challenge.
Four prize categories will be awarded in the competition between the Blackfoot and Snake River school districts — top district, as well as the top individual school, classroom and student reading the most minutes in February.
Last year, Stoddard won the top-school category.
With an enthusiastic show of hands, prompted by Catt, Stoddard students indicated they believe they have what it takes to win again.
Catt is the community relations committee chairman for the Blackfoot Firefighters Union.
“Everyone loves competition — we live in America,” Principal Ryan Wilson said. "(The program) helps students with reading by getting the kids excited to compete with other schools and districts, and having local firefighters — local heroes — come in and promote reading with the opportunity to win prizes.”
Students can read any literature, including in-class reading material.
“We wanted to do minutes instead of pages because minutes are the same for everybody,” Catt told the students. “Some people read faster, and some people read slower.”
Students laughed as Catt confessed that he was a slower reader himself.
Last year’s top reading student read more than 8,800 minutes.
Most students raised their hands and cheered, pledging to read more than 9,000 minutes this month.
After the lively assembly, two students from Kimberly Buck’s fifth-grade class set reading goals.
Lizzie Gerstlauer-King read 1,000 minutes in last year’s competition. She wants to double that figure this time.
“I usually read before I go to bed — about an hour or two,” Lizzie said. "(I’m) going to have to read in the mornings now, too.”
Noelia Gonzalez said she worked hard last year but didn’t do as well as she had hoped. This year, she will read from books she enjoys so she can do better, Noelia said.
Her goal is 200 minutes.
“I like to read animal books,” she said. “I just love animals. I have a dog, and at my grandma’s I kind of have a little kitten.”
Competing Snake River schools are Snake River Middle, Riverside Elementary and Rockford Elementary.
Blackfoot schools are Ridge Crest, Wapello, Fort Hall, I.T. Stoddard and Donald D. Stalker.
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