The Book Lovers Committee prepared this year’s Week Long love of Reading event, which took place March 13 through 17, which allowed students to play BINGO for the chance to win prizes. According to the committee, the goal of the weeklong event was to promote the benefits of reading as well as engage students in a schoolwide event.

This year’s event mimicked last year’s Dr. Seuss Week celebration in that students engaged in school wide scavenger hunt type activities to answer the BINGO card questions. The cards, which were distributed by English teachers on Monday, March 13, were created by The Book Lovers Committee. The committee includes faculty and staff from around the building, including Library Media Specialist Nancy Carlson and English teacher Kaitlin McIntyre.

“In this world it sometimes feels like it isn’t cool or right to pursue intellect. We want students who value knowledge, who value continual growth, and who value the beautiful glimpses into humanity that we find in literature to find a community within our school where they can thrive,” McIntyre said.

The BINGO cards were composed of reading related questions for students to answer by speaking to school faculty or researching online. Some BINGO questions included “Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016?” and “Who was your elementary school librarian?”

Prizes included books and with board games, which were donated by Barnes and Noble. In addition to the BINGO game, the committee worked to promote reading throughout the building through bulletin boards and interactive displays.

Just outside the Main Office, committee members displayed a ReadBox, a bulletin board made to resemble a RedBox kiosk. Rather than movie titles and rental prices, the display included book suggestions, inviting students to “rent” a book for free from the library.

“We all get busy and when we sit down to relax the first thing we grab is not usually a book, it’s the TV remote, and I’m guilty of it, but we hope that it reminded people that a book is a great thing to jump into,” Carlson said.

Another ReadBox was put up in the library, with books on display for students to check out. Alongside the display was a backdrop for students and staff to take pictures in front of.

“My friends and I often spend periods off in the library. We had a lot of fun taking pictures together in the library with the paper accessories,” senior Deanna Humennyj said.

In addition to students, staff members were invited to celebrate the Week Long Love of Reading in various ways.

“I celebrated by visiting the photobooth in the library with other teachers and students as well as wearing my Book Lovers t-shirt with pride. I also joined Twitter, so I could make my very first Tweet to @fhsbooklovers,”  English Department Leader Amy Miller said.

According to Carlson the committee will continue promoting the benefits of reading and hope this year’s celebration taught students the benefits of reading.

“We hope it reminds people how much fun [reading] can be, what an escape it can be and maybe encourage people to come in and grab a book for April vacation,” Carlson said.