Read-A-Thon event helps fund PJMS activities, athletics

PALMER — Students at Palmer Junior Middle School are getting paid to read books this month.

For the fourth year, the school’s annual Read-A-Thon event also is its biggest fund-raiser, said Gene Stone, principal.

“We put a lot of emphasis on reading,” he said at the school’s kickoff event Sept. 29.

This year the Alaska Avalanche hockey team got involved, too. Avs goalie Landon Peterson blocked dozens of shots from students who wanted a chance to test their puck skills during the kickoff event last week.

Stone said the Read-A-Thon raised about $15,000 for the school last year. He said it funds the school’s student activities and pays stipends for sponsors and coaches. Activities include things like a flight simulator, robotics and chess clubs, and wrestling and basketball teams.

Students used to sell magazines to raise money to fund school activities, Stone said. “This is more relevant to what we do in school.”

And 100 percent of the money goes back to the school, he said.

Eighth-grader Dana Bendixen, 13, also prefers the reading fund-raiser to selling magazines, popcorn or cookie dough.

“This is a lot better than selling all that stuff,” he said.

He and classmate Wyatt Gardipee, 14, were excited, too, because as eighth-graders they got to miss two class periods to help run the Read-A-Thon kickoff event in the school cafeteria.

Gardipee said some students bring in as much as $300 for the fund-raiser. He said students are collecting pledges, such as 10 cents a page, $1 a book or flat rate pledges.

“You read, collect money and win stuff,” Gardipee said.

Students estimated their pledges and wrote that number on black paper hockey pucks Bendixen and Gardipee stuck to a giant Read-A-Thon banner behind the sign-up table.

The fund-raiser ends at the school social later this month, Bendixen said.

Stone said the school’s emphasis on reading has paid off.

“We have the highest literacy scores in the district,” he said.

Assistant principal Dave Russell said studies show that students also do better academically if they are involved in activities.

“I tell students we work hard during the day to play hard after school,” he said.

Sean Wise, 12, has a $100 goal this year.

“I’m going to raise double what I did last year,” he told Russell while waiting for his turn to shoot a goal.

People who wish to participate may call the front office and staff will help locate a student to take their pledge.

“We’re not turning people away,” Russell said.

For more information or to make a pledge, call Palmer Junior Middle School at 761-4300.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.