Lincoln promotes reading through Literacy Night

The students at Lincoln Elementary had fun with their parents Thursday night. The school held its annual ?Literacy Night? which featured three activities and a meal. The night began at 5:30 p.m. when the kids and adults ate supper in the gymnasium. They dined on hot dogs, chips and lemonade. The Washington Lions Club provided popcorn.

The crowd then broke up into three groups. One group heard librarian Don Ruffenach speak about the Washington Free Public Library?s summer reading program. One group made bookmarks, and a third group heard author Paul Mullen speak about his book, ?The Day I Hit a Home Run at Principal Park.? Each group spent 20 minutes at its station before rotating to the next activity.

Mullen had addressed the entire Lincoln student body earlier in the day. He is the author of several baseball-themed children?s books, including the book about Principal Park, which is about a boy who dreams of playing for the Iowa Cubs and belting one over the fence.

Mullen?s message to the kids was to find their calling in life and never give up on it.

?My mom had eight children, and she said every one of us was born with a special gift,? said Mullen. ?I wanted to drive that home to the kids. I look them in the eye and say, ?You have a gift,? and I hope that will encourage them to live out their dreams.?

At one of his recent talks in Ainsworth, a young girl approached Mullen and told him, with tears in her eyes, that she had no dream.

?The first I thing I did was I hugged her,? he said. ?I told her not to despair because that dream will come to her.?

Mullen spoke about his daughter, Erin, who wanted to play on the Little League baseball team. The boys on the team picked on her because they didn?t want a girl on their team. Mullen believed in his daughter and worked with her daily, hitting her 150 fly balls every night. When the boys were playing football and basketball, Erin was honing her pitching skills. At the age of 12, Erin could throw a baseball 70 mph. Erin went on to play softball for Belmont University.

Neil and Rebecca Mills attended Literacy Night with their children Lance, Erin and Areil. Each of their children got a free book and bookmark. Areil picked out the book ?Llama Llama Red Pajama.? They decorated their bookmarks with colored pencils, markers and stickers.

Rebecca said her family enjoyed the meal.

?It beats having to make supper,? she said.

She said her kids love to read the book ?Ten Tiny Fairies.? Areil said she was especially fond of the book ?The Fly Guy.?

Lincoln educators Heather Brokaw and Tessa Steinhart attended the event Thursday night. Brokaw teaches fourth grade and Steinhart is a Chapter 1 reading teacher. Steinhart said the purpose of Literacy Night is to get promote reading after school bell sounds.

Brokaw said, ?In the past, we?ve had literacy-based games the parents could play with their kids at home. We did anything to get them to read.?

Steinhart said that urging kids to read is an uphill battle when the weather is nice.

?I was the kind of student who would have preferred to play outside rather than read,? said Steinhart. ?We encourage the students to read outside of school. We teach the kids that reading can be fun, too.?

Brokaw said it was nice to have Ruffenach talk about the summer reading program because that gives the students an opportunity to continue reading all year long. Steinhart said she tells her students about the library?s DVDs, just to get them in the door, in the hopes that they?ll discover a book once they?re inside.

Lincoln students read a wide variety of books at school. Steinhart said the students read books that touch on a subject they?ve covered in social studies. For example, one class just learned about the Great Depression, and then read fictional books set in that period.