Ashland Reads Extravaganza held live for first time in four years
By Julia Sommer for Ashland.news
Once upon a time — well, it was Wednesday, May 3 — there was the first live Rotary Ashland Reads event in four years. It was a huge, lively success.
First-graders from Bellview, Helman, Walker, Willow Wind, and TRAILS schools arrived by bus and on foot at Ashland High School in the morning, where they were welcomed by Rotarians and members of Ashland Fire & Rescue, who were there to barbecue lunch for the large gathering (putting out little grease fires along the way).
The first graders filled most of Mountain Avenue Theatre for a program of music led by Tish McFadden, founder of Ashland’s Rum Tum School of Music, and story-telling by Bellview teacher Matt Damon, who read his charming “The Fall of General Custard or The Overthrow of a Leftover” as it was projected on a huge screen. Ashland Librarian Lyn Hereema led an on-stage discussion of the story with students from each of the five schools.
It seems that “Old McDonald” is still very popular with young children, as is the alphabet song. There was also a certain amount of friendly rivalry between the five schools, with decibel levels rising to prove the point.
Students had chosen their favorite of five books ahead of time, which were paraded on stage by Rotarians and SOU Rotaract students in gaily decorated sandwich boards: “Invasion of the Unicorns,” “Wonder Walkers,” “The Sour Grape,” “Berry Song” and “Toasty.”
After lunch outdoors served by Rotarians, the first graders received book bags containing their chosen book (provided at a generous discount by Tree House Books) and other goodies courtesy of SOU’s Schneider Museum of Art (the book, “Making a Great Exhibition”), Ashland Parks & Recreation (a day pass for Daniel Meyer pool), ScienceWorks (a day pass), and bookmarks from Paddington Station. Rotarians distributed a total of 175 bags.
Heard from a first-grader at the end of the event: “This was the best field trip of my entire life!”
Sponsored, organized, and presented by Ashland’s two Rotary clubs, hard-working co-chairs of Ashland Reads were Kristin McKean, Kim Galloway, Chris Chambers and Shonelle Quattlebaum.
Email freelance writer Julia Sommer of Ashland at juliamsommer@gmail.com.
