BY: JACOB H

The first Bookmans Reading Challenge ends, but the goodwill the event inspires doesn't. Jacob H asks: Is it next year yet?

Experience the excitement as Schumaker Elementary learns they've won $5,000! Courtesy of KOLD.

I’m manning the helium tank and Sheila’s tying on the strings. A cloud of orange balloons floats above us. We’re backstage in Schumaker Elementary School’s multi-purpose room, preparing for the big awards assembly. It’s lunchtime and kids are eating fish sticks on the other side of the curtain – loudly. I’d forgotten what it sounds like when you file 100 kids into a confined space and then give them chocolate milk. It sounds like total chaos to me, but Sheila (ever the mom) seems much more nonplused. “Kids are loud,” she says simply.

I think back to February, when we kicked off the Bookmans' Reading Challenge.  We asked 25 Tucson Unified School District elementary schools to challenge their students to read as many books as possible over a three month period. For each book read, the students would need to write a small book report or, for the younger kids, draw a picture. The school with the highest average number of books read per student would win $5,000. 

“Do kids even read anymore?” I asked. “Don’t they just play video games and text message their friends? I wonder how many books they can read?”

“I don’t know, maybe 10,000? Wouldn’t that be awesome?” Sheila said hopefully.

When we added up the totals on May 1st, my jaw immediately dropped. “Did we hit an extra button on the calculator?” I carefully added everything up again and looked at the total. It was the same number that I’d gotten a moment earlier. I held the calculator up for Sheila and we both let out a cheer. In just three months, the students had read 100,000 books!

Of the 25 schools that participated, the clear cut winner was Schumaker Elementary School. With just 331 students, they had read almost 14,000 books. We found out that their success was largely due to the efforts of their librarian, Ms. Riveras. She was a constant source of encouragement to the kids throughout the challenge and it had paid off. Sheila called her to give her the good news and we arranged for an awards assembly at the school on May 9th.

POP! POW! A couple of the balloons burst under the heat of the stage lights. Kids are immediately alerted to our presence. We can hear them making guesses about what’s going on. “Balloons,” they keep saying. “They’re blowing up balloons!” I had no idea but, holy cow, kids get excited about balloons. Before long, little hands start parting the curtain, trying to get a peek at our goings-on. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Sheila says, in her best "Wizard of Oz" voice.

Apparently, blowing up balloons really works up an appetite because after we finish, Sheila and I are starving. Luckily, Dr. Laird, the principal of Schumaker, invites us to have lunch in the teacher’s lounge. It’s Staff Appreciation Day and lunch has been catered. We pile a few sandwiches and cake on our plates and make our way over to a table. About 15 teachers are already eating. Dr. Laird introduces us and we get a small round of applause. We both smile and do a little mock bow.

I’ve never been in a teacher’s lounge before and it feels, well – weird. I feel like we’ve somehow snuck backstage at a rock show. It all seems very forbidden and mysterious. I think back to all the stolen glances I got into the teacher’s lounge when I was a kid. The door would be rapidly closing as cigarette smoke poured out into the hallway. It was a very different time, I guess. Now there’s no smoke in sight and all the teachers that we’re lunching with seem terribly normal. I've always imagined teachers trashing their students as soon as they walk into the lounge, but I hear none of that. They’re all very nice.

Ms. Riveras walks in and we discuss some of the specifics for the assembly. The kids don’t yet know that they’ve won and Sheila and I are both a little worried that the kids won’t quite get that’s going on. I mean, does a seven year old have any concept of what $5,000 is? But Ms. Riveras assures us that the kids will be excited. For the last week, they’ve been asking her constantly who the winner of the challenge was. I decide that even if the giant check doesn’t excite the kids, the masses of balloons on the stage will probably do the trick, judging from our earlier experience.

Bob arrives. Sheila and I have been asked numerous times by school staff if he will be wearing his trademark hat and there it is, sitting squarely on his head.  We usher him backstage as the kids begin to file into the multi-purpose room. They’re instructed by their teachers to sit Indian-style in neat little rows. A few of the older kids spot the Bookmans’ logo on the balloons and all of a sudden “Bookmans” is making its way around the room like a giant game of telephone. Before long, the place is filled with buzzing children.

Sheila takes the stage. We’ve decided not to reveal that Schumaker has actually won the Challenge until the end of the assembly, so she says that she’s there to thank the school for taking part, and to congratulate some of the students and teachers who did particularly impressive jobs. She calls up six kids and seven teachers and presents them with Bookmans’ gift certificates. They stand proudly on the stage as the kids applaud.

“And now we have a special guest,” Sheila says into the microphone. Bob walks out from behind the curtain and apparently the hat does the trick because the kids start clapping and cheering. After his first words - “You guys rock!” - the place goes crazy. “You kids are the future,” Bob says, “You did an amazing job,  and I have a present for you.” Bob and Dr. Laird pull the wrapping off of a giant $5,000 check made out to Schumaker Elementary School. The sound that erupts from the kids makes the earlier lunch room noise seem like Senior Citizen Day at the Library.