A year ago, Mariah Fish hosted a FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) reading challenge with Montgomery City and Jonesburg elementary schools that was a huge success.
Now, the …
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A year ago, Mariah Fish hosted a FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) reading challenge with Montgomery City and Jonesburg elementary schools that was a huge success.
Now, the New Florence resident and Montgomery County High School sophomore is planning on hosting the reading challenge again. This time, it will give participants a chance to win prizes.
Fish is hosting the FCCLA Reading Competition from Jan. 9-April 9 for any student from kindergarten through sixth grade in Montgomery County. All participants are challenged to read 2,000 minutes and will win prizes if they log in their work in the Reader Zone app, which was paid for by the MCHS FCCLA chapter.
“When parents download that program or the app, they type in a code to bring us to our program,” Fish said. “Within that, it shows you your progress on the app that shows you how many minutes out of the 2,000 you read and what percentage that looks like. So it adds a visual for kids, which makes it easier to explain how close you are to finishing your goal. I think it’s also important that when the kids reach their goal, it will give them a sense of achievement.”
For her challenge, Fish received a $750 donation of children’s books from Gumdrop Books for prizes of the participants, thanks to Angel Davis, who is the librarian at Jonesburg Elementary.
“We needed a national sponsor to go with our project just to fit into the guidelines of the FCCLA rubric,” Fish said. “I asked her out for help because I think books as prizes for readings are very important because not only do they read that many minutes, but they’re going to read that book. They’re excited about getting it for a prize. They worked hard for that book.”
To sign up, participants have to download the Reader Zone app and use code fb10c to sign into the program link, www.readerzone.com. Any participant who hits the 2,000-minute goal will be notified by phone to select a reading prize.
Fish said her project was based on the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.
“The Book It program might have you read so many minutes, so many pages or so many books in order to get Pizza Hut,” Fish said. “I think there were other programs that we had in elementary school where you can read so many minutes for a ticket to Six Flags.”
Fish said she promoted her project to principals Jenny Krattli and Jill Jacob at JBE and MCE, respectively.
“Both of them seemed very excited to promote this and push this out to their kids,” the MCHS sophomore said.
In early July, Fish received a national gold award and earned a fifth-place finish at the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in Seattle, Wash., for her reading challenge, which was her STAR event.
Fish, who is the MCHS FCCLA chapter president, said having the reading challenge encourages more people to read.
“I always liked to read,” Fish said. “It’s always been something that I’ve done since as long as I can remember. Before I could read, people were always reading to me. I think it’s very important. There are so many studies that show that it improves the kids as they get older. It improves their academic success because the more you read, the more your vocabulary will be expanded. Even if you’re not focusing on the reading part, your creativity is used beyond English classes. Reading increases your vocabulary and ability to comprehend things, which work with things like studying for any class.”
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