BC students raise over $2,500 in read-a-thon
Students in the Kourts’ classrooms like to read.
They keep reading calendars in the classroom and track their time immersed in the pages of their favorite tomes at home. But last month, the students of Beth and Andrew Kourt satisfied more than their love of books by staging a read-a-thon for a local charity.
Beth Kourt’s Clarksville Elementary fourth-graders and Andrew Kourt’s fifth-grade Glenmont Elementary class collectively read for over 11,000 minutes in their free time over a week-long period last month. By collecting sponsorships of a few cents per minute from families and friends, the 46 kids raised over $2,500 for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region.
We thought we would get a couple hundred dollars, Andrew Kourt said. `A lot of them really got into it. It turned out much bigger than we ever thought it would.`
Andrew Kourt heaped the credit for the read-a-thon idea on his wife. They had been trying to come up with an idea their classrooms could collaborate on.
`It just kind of came to me that they do a weekly reading calendar…so doing something for school that would help educate them while also helping someone else made sense,` Beth Kourt said.
They had originally hoped to raise enough money to put together welcome care bags for families served by the Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing and other services to the families of children who are being treated in Albany Medical Center. Having far surpassed that goal, they’ll make a donation of over $2,100 to the organization.
`We were really looking for somewhere local the kids could really make a connection to,` Beth Kourt said. `They really wanted to help the kids. They were really genuine in wanting to help the kids and their families.`
The bags, which the classes assembled Thursday, Dec. 9, include items like shampoo and toothpaste families might have forgotten to pack, as well as candy and other pick-me-ups. Each of the bags kids stuffed and decorated included a dragonfly ornament, a symbol of strength and hope.
Fifth grader Paxton Guy, 10, was drawing a flower on her care bag in Andrew Kourt’s classroom. She raised about $200 by reading for 570 minutes, mostly realistic fiction and fantasy books.
`I really tried,` she said. `I think it’s a great thing to do.`
Madeleine Cafarelli, also 10, said her favorite author is J. K. Rowling, writer of the `Harry Potter` series. She read for 215 minutes.
`It’s always nice to do stuff for charity,` she said as she filled in a rainbow on her care bag. `It makes you feel good.`
This is the first collaborative effort between the two classrooms, but both teachers said it’s not likely to be the last. They want to make the read-a-thon an annual event, and also want to get the classes together for the June Freihoffer’s Run in Albany, to raise even more for the Ronald McDonald House.
`We’re trying to sort of make it a year long process, rather than a one time event,` said Beth Kourt.“
