Summer Readers Reap Their Rewards
27 September, 2006

St. Anthony’s annual Summer Readers Luncheon was recently held, celebrating the achievements of 55 of our students.  The Summer Reading Program is a program which entices children to read when school is not in session and encourages them to become lifelong library users. The students who successfully completed this years’ program not only earned a free dress day, but were treated to a pizza lunch and ice cream dessert.  Raffle prizes were drawn throughout the lunch for prizes ranging from gift cards to Jamba Juice, Coldstone Creamery, Chip & Cookie, and gift certificates to use at our upcoming book fair. 

Research shows that the reading skills a student gains during the school year are lost if he or she does not read during the summer.  Findings by literacy experts also show that independent, self-directed reading – reading done outside of school assignments solely because the child wants to – is vital to the development of a child's literacy skills. Summer Reading provides just that kind of skill-building experience.

We congratulate all of our summer readers and hope to have an even bigger crowd at next year’s luncheon! 

"When you read with your child, you show them that reading is important, but you also show them they're important - that they are so important to you that you will spend 20 minutes a day with your arm around them."                            

Laura Bush (2003)