Otters! Our incredibly generous and supportive community did it again – we smashed our $70,000 Read-a-Thon fundraising goal and raised over $90,000! Thank you so much for encouraging your students to read and support our school! It was awesome to see our students track their reading minutes, complete challenges, engage with local author Wahab Algarmi at our author assemblies, participate in the Book Swap, and recommend books to their friends.

Check out these impressive stats from this year’s Under the Sea Read-a-Thon:

• 222,466 minutes (that’s just under 3,708 hours) were read by Edison students over the course of 2 weeks. That’s almost 154.5 days!

• 307 students (65%) participated in the Read-a-Thon by recording their reading time or fundraising. 63 1st graders participated – the highest number for any grade! Kindergarten and 4th grade were next, each with 54 students participating. 

• 183 students met and exceeded their grade-level reading goals! 2nd grade had the highest number of students – 36 – to hit their grade-level reading goals. Way to go!!

• We raised over $90,000 in donations to support our wonderful school! This includes outstanding checks, per minute pledges, and company matches, so please make sure you get those to us as soon as you can.

• Congratulations to Ms. Valler’s class for raising $9886 – the most donations of any class! Ms. Angelo’s class was right at their heels with $9760 raised!

• 1st grade raised the most in donations – nearly $24,100! 2nd grade raised the second most with $16,000 and Kindergarten was third with over $14,700.

• 163 students entered the reading challenges! Congratulations to these winners (one from each grade), who will each receive a signed book by Wahab Algarmi: Shelby Froelich, Zuza Chellam, Kai Lasche, Beatrix Rathmann, Lailah Natouf, and Rosie Bernstein.

• The Book Fair was also a huge success, raising over $6000 for Edison teachers and staff to use towards book purchases from Scholastic.

We would like to recognize the following students for being a top reader or top fundraiser in their grade:

Kindergarten

• Top 2 fundraisers in Kindergarten:  Westin Servin-Smith and Ellie Palmer

• Top 3 readers in each Kindergarten class: Westin Servin-Smith, Elena Espindola, and Etienne Colas (Ms. Lee); Otto Stoltzfus, Carly Koch, and Donovan Savage (Ms. Fayngersh); Adam Fayngersh, Henry Lew, and Louis Sadeghipour (Ms. Dunn-Ruiz)

1st grade

• Top 2 fundraisers in 1st grade: Brianna Kevlin and Charlie McFeely 

• Top 3 readers in each 1st grade class: Calvin Moffat, Elia Teng, and Kairyn Auld (Ms. Angelo); Zuza Chellam, Max Pollak, and Felix Seymour in (Ms. Dodge); Mateo Bernstein, August Pouliot, and Ellie Douglas (Ms. Valler)

2nd grade

• Top 2 fundraisers in 2nd grade: Adam Wasson and Colette Beirne

• Top 3 readers (with some ties!) in each 2nd grade class: Roan Chakrabarti, Harlowe Thacker, and Nandin Munkhsugar (Ms. Hinds); Isaac Coladarci, Adam Wasson, Leon Sadeghipour, and Dylan Chakrabarti (Ms. del Rosario); Isaiah Mieler, Gianna Onori, and Nathan May (Ms. Pieri)

3rd grade

• Top 2 fundraisers in 3rd grade: Rosie Tiee-Grieder and Sam Kellogg

• Top 3 readers (with some ties!)  in each 3rd grade class: Vaughn Kneer, Alice Moffat, and Evelyn Merino (Ms. Howell); Sam Kellogg, Carter Chung, and Benjamin Lew (Ms. Isola); Brynn Hanelt, Anna Gow, Kira Yen, Kyla Gamblin, Benjamin Chan, and Nathalie Chabas (Ms. Westlund)

4th grade

• Top 2 fundraisers in 4th grade: Kyla Kevlin and Toby Cline

• Top 3 readers (with some ties!) in each 4th grade class: Damian Tran, Kyla Kevlin, and Marina Flores (Ms. Navarro); Haakon Adams, Lucian Flanagan-Ladega, Magnus Morgan, and Gwyneth Grunt (Ms. Carpenter); Ike August, Silas Nelson, and Henry Mieler (Ms. Wanigatunga)

5th grade

• Top 2 fundraisers in 5th grade: Pierce Chi and Rona Smith

• Top 3 readers in each 5th grade class: Kavya Dhyani, Rosie Bernstein, and Luca Puccini (Ms. Flanagan); Kate Briggs, Anstin Jiang, and Alana Flores (Mr. Lonsdale); Benjamin Loeffler-Siu (Ms. Wanigatunga)

Special Day

  - Top reader: Penelope Selavka

A very special thanks to Kaytee Miller, our graphic design hero, and Jocelyn Douglas, who led the charge for this year’s Book Fair! And a big thank you to the rest of this year’s Read-a-Thon Committee (Elaine Cline, Jennifer Currier, JoAnn Czechowicz, Erin Daugherty, Brittany Fraser, Serena Hom, Karen Merino, Anne Paprocki, and Charlise Tiee) and everyone who helped with the Book Fair.

Prizes will be sent home next week. And because we met our fundraising goal, we’ll have a fun and silly event with Mr. Sahakian at the next community meeting on November 18th – students will get to paint his hair wacky colors! 

Once again, GREAT JOB to all students who participated, and THANK YOU to all the families, teachers, and staff for supporting our students!

Many thanks,

Erica Bucci & Julia Kripke
Read-A-Thon Co-Chairs