By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Brandon Twp.- Mission accomplished.

The students and staff of the Brandon School District, as well as the community at large, came together this summer to accept the One Million Pages Summer Reading Challenge and not only was the goal reached, it was exceeded by more than 200,000 pages.

“We finished our challenge with 1,253,217 pages read and logged this summer,” said Superintendent Matt Outlaw. “I’m glad we reached our total, the main goal was to raise awareness about the importance of literacy with parents, staff, and student involvement.”

The challenge began on June 16, the last day of school, and ended Sept. 6, the first day of this school year. Everyone in the district, students, parents, and faculty, as well as business owners and all residents, were invited to log on the district website all pages read during the summer, whether those pages were found in books, magazines or newspapers.

The district will celebrate reaching the milestone at the Sept. 23 home football game when the Blackhawks take on the Linden Eagles.

“It will be a community celebration and we want the community to be there,” said Brandie Bevel, co-chair of One Million Pages and Brandon Academy of Art and Science teacher. “We are looking forward to seeing the progress of our students. The kids are more engaged with books, reading at a higher level, with better comprehension and really just excited to be reading.”

Bevel said she easily read 1,500 pages this summer just reading to her own 3-year-old daughter, Scarlett, and also reading for the college courses she is taking for her master’s degree. She is planning on giving prizes for the top readers in each building.

Outlaw gave a breakdown for how many pages each school collectively read, with BAAS at 21,957; Oakwood Elementary, 84,839; Brandon Middle School, 92,881; Harvey Swanson Elementary,116,897; Brandon High School, 185,149; and Brandon Fletcher Intermediate School, 224,624. Staff members logged 45,848 pages, but community members not in the schools clocked the highest number of pages read at 481,022.

Over 1,200 individuals participated in the reading challenge and Outlaw hopes to have every student in the district, approximately 2,600 kids, involved next summer.

“Based on the passion and energy that we saw around this initiative, I am hoping that this will be a great springboard for our students as learners this school year,” he said. “This was a great way for the community to come together, to have fun and do something that is helping the youth of the community.”