Woodridge Reads 50,000 Books in 7 Months

At the beginning of the school year, posed a challenge to the community -- read 50,000 books from Oct. 1 to June 3.

Woodridge accomplished that goal early, recording 50,300 books read by the first week of May, according to Kelly Neylon, literacy enrichment specialist at .

Neylon and Lisa Thompson, a Title I teacher at Meadowview, introduced the idea for Woodridge Reads! to the district.

Woodridge Reads! was open to anyone in the Woodridge community, but its most active participants came from , and Woodridge senior citizen groups.

District 68 schools held assemblies to kick off the challenge at the beginning of the school year, each with its own theme. Willow Creek Principal MaryAnn Sanfilipp dressed as a pirate. Elementary School sang "Book Romance," a literary take on Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."

The district also hosted an author and an event called "Woodridge Reads! for Beads."

Neylon said she expected the community to reach the 50,000-book goal by May, based on the number of books read by District 68 students in last year's Accelerated Reader program.

To celebrate, the district will hold a celebration on June 1.

"We're planning to have a DJ, have face painting," Neylon said. "I have Woodridge Reads! tattoos, games, a raffle and a cakewalk that's a bookwalk instead."

Neylon said she'd love to run the program in the schools again, but it would depend if the district would have the money to support it again or if the program received a grant.

She said the program went well throughout the school year.

"At our school, everyone was really excited about reading and got really into it," Neylon said. "I had people come up to me and say it was lot of fun and that they were glad we did this. It went really, really well."