Prize Incentives for Schools

All schools will be winners because they will have raised money for their libraries, and will have improved the fitness and reading levels of all participants. But there are also prizes for schools making the largest 10% fundraising contribution to First Book!

Grand Prize: An autographed book for each participating student* in the winning school (your choice of Wendelin's paperback titles), AND an all-expense paid author day from Wendelin (assemblies, book signings, etc.) concluded by Wendelin leading the school in a victory lap around the track/field. To learn more about Wendelin's school presentations, click here.

Second Place: An autographed book for each participating student* in the school (your choice of Wendelin’'s paperback titles).

Third Place: A full hardcover set of autographed Sammy Keyes mysteries for the school’'s library (or to be auctioned off at another school fundraiser).

Fourth Place: Two sets of autographed hardcover Shredderman titles.

Participation Prize: Sometimes dollars collected don’'t reflect effort invested, so the school that submits the most compelling letter explaining what they did to make the fundraiser a success (including percent of student participation, creative fundraising strategies, etc.) will be awarded their choice of an author day from Wendelin, OR an autographed paperback book for each participating student. (To submit a letter, simply e-mail us by December 15th, 2009, putting PRIZE APPLICATION in the memo box.)

Happy Fundraising!

* Participating Student is defined as any student who completes the reading and exercising portions of the program and raises a minimum of $26.20 for their school.

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The 2007 Exercise the Right to Read Prize Winners

1st Place—Charles F. Patton Middle School in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Through an innovative get-involved campaign for the students and their families, and through the seeking of corporate sponsorship from businesses in their community, this school raised nearly $9,000 through the campaign. Wow!

2nd Place—Central Middle School in Edmond, Oklahoma
This school went all out to bring the students, staff, and community together as one united force. From pajama reading parties to superheroes exercise day, to walking with pedometers and weights, the degree of total involvement of this school is inspiring. Congratulations to CMS on their hard work and energetic spirit!

3rd Place—Sequoyah Middle School in Edmond, Oklahoma
Two leadership classes took on the task of motivating their school to read and run their way to this top finishers’ slot. Quite an undertaking for fifty students, and kudos to the student body for rising to the challenge. Way to go!

4th Place—Kazen Middle School in San Antonio, Texas  
This school used "a little creative fundraising." They put a container for pennies in each classroom, and had a competition: the classroom that had the most pennies minus larger denomination coins (added by kids and faculty from competing classrooms) won a library-sponsored pizza party. Sounds creative and fun, and was also obviously effective for them to have pitched in pennies all the way to fourth place!

Participation Prize—May Grisham School, Santa Maria, California
The kindness, generosity, and good-will generated by the kids at this school is something that should be turned into a movie. This is not a “rich school”, yet they felt that there were others less fortunate than they, and decided to raise money and books for a school across the state that desperately needs supplies for its library. In addition to collecting pledges, May Grisham students put on a play, sold shirts, sold popcorn, had a penny drive, wore ETRTR sandwich boards, and just worked-worked-worked to collect funds and books for their sister school. After sending 10% to First Book, May Grisham School was able to present their sister school with 2,000 very gently-used books, and a check for $3,000. What a truly inspiring school!

We’ve also decided to add a special individual award:
The Spirit Award goes to Kate Schoedinger, Reading Specialist at Ross A. Lurgio Middle School, Bedford, New Hampshire.  Kate is one of those rare individuals who helps you believe that you can make your big dreams a reality. Over the past year, Kate has rallied behind the program, championing the cause throughout her school and her community. She has also been a pillar of strength and support to us personally, even coming out to the NYC Marathon to cheer us on. Although we didn’t know Kate when this program started, we know she’ll be a life-long friend. She will receive an autographed first edition (now rare) of
How I Survived Being a Girl.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the 2007 schools that participated.
We hope you found it to be a worthwhile endeavor and that your kids enjoyed running and reading a marathon!