Published: February 10, 2007 11:48 pm      

Read-a-thon focuses on local literacy needs

While many people read for fun, everyone needs to read to be successful in today’s economy, said Ron Wolfe, co-chair of Madison County Project Read’s Read-a-Thon conducted held Saturday at Richmond City Hall.

Even with the emphasis on education in Madison County, home to two institutions of higher learning, “We still have hundreds of people who read very poorly if at all,” Wolfe said.

Project Read offers tutoring in math, reading and English as a second language for individuals 16 and older, he said. “The annual Read-a-Thon is held to make people aware of the services we offer and to recruit tutors.”

The goal of Project Read’s tutoring is to help students qualify for the General Education Diploma (GED), Wolfe said.

In recent years, the Read-a-Thon was conducted in the Richmond Mall, but this year the event was moved to Richmond City Hall to facilitate video taping, Wolfe said.

The Read-a-Thon tape will be shown on Adelphia Cable Channel 12 for the first time March 3. “We hope to have it shown several other times as well,” he said.

Readers came from all parts of Madison County and included Richmond Mayor Connie Lawson, Berea Mayor Steve Connelly and Eastern Kentucky University President Joanne Glasser.

A group of third-graders from Model Laboratory School read compositions they wrote as if they had been passengers of the ill-fated Titanic, the supposedly “unsinkable” ship that went down in the chilly waters of the Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg in April 1912.

The children imagined themselves as passengers in various classes aboard the ship, from rich to poor.

While describing the terror and tragedy that occurred all around them, the students wrote scripts with happy endings for their families.

All described how Titanic crewmen “shoved” or “forced” their fathers onto lifeboats with their wives and children despite the captain’s orders that only women and children be allowed on the lifeboats.

With TDS Restaurants, owner of the Richmond McDonald’s franchise as its sponsor, the Read-a-Thon’s list of more than 70 readers included Ronald McDonald.

While the young school children were still present, Ronald read “Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car.”

“This is a story that I enjoyed when I was just a little clown,” he said.

Some seventh-graders from Madison Middle School read papers they had written for a statewide soil conservation essay contest.

“We must conserve the rich soil that makes the grass in Kentucky so green,” one student wrote. “It’s so green it’s called bluegrass.”

During the Read-a-Thon, Project Read recognized its longest-serving board member, retired EKU English professor Dr. Martha Conaway. She also took her turn reading.

For details about Project Read’s tutoring services or becoming a tutor, call 623-4905.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.