READY TO READ

WASILLA — Lisa Vrvilo hopes to read much into her students’ efforts.

The Cottonwood Elementary School principal quietly looked on Monday as hundreds of young readers lost themselves in stories of adventure and whimsy. If each of the school’s students secured at least $20 in pledges, the third annual Read-A-Thon will translate to 24 new computers for the school’s computer lab.

“We’re hoping to be able to purchase those computers, then the computers from our current lab will go out to the classrooms to replace those computers that are nearly 10 years old,” Vrvilo said.

Judging by some of the third-grade efforts, Cottonwood may realize that goal. Denalie Moskowski, 8, brought in $61 in pledges and Audrey Coon, also 8, $56. Moskowski admits there was little legwork involved.

“My mom read a note and she saw the $60 in it and she was, like, um, I’ll just give you $60,” she said.

While television and video games can be distractions to encouraging children to read, Cottonwood consistently has more than 90 percent of its students scoring at or above proficiency level on the state Standards Based Assessment, Vrvilo said.

For Moskowski, the lure “are the adventures and stuff,” she said. “I like stuff about fathers and daughters going on adventures.”

Caden Curry, 9, is more the sci-fi type.

“I like Star Wars because there’s a lot of fighting and action in it,” he said, adding reading is not boring. “You can make it like a movie in your head with what’s happening.”

Reading has paid off for Cottonwood before. In the first Read-A-Thon, the school raided enough money to lease 12 Promethean boards, the last year’s event was used to purchase five document cameras to use with the boards.

“They get engaged in their books, which is a nice way to do a fund-raiser focused around an academic skill,” Vrvilo said. “We’re very proud of our reading accomplishments. It’s the backbone to education. Students have to be able to read, and once they’re successful in reading, they can be successful in all areas, so we have a heavy focus on reading at Cottonwood.”

The idea of working in a new computer lab is exciting, but still seems far off for Liam Pavilionis, 8.

“I just like all the action,” he said.

As does 9-year-old Collin Croly, whose favorite is “the ‘Series of Unfortunate Events’ (books), because, there’s, like, a lot of stuff you can, like, make up in your head.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.