Leap of faith earns St. Marys School national recognition
By Sharon Haught
May 10, 2011
283
From the accelerated reader program for the younger grades to the study of classical literature in junior high, the rigorous language arts curriculum at St. Marys School in Wooster inspires its students to embrace a lifelong love of books.
By combining the students inherent love of reading with a successful annual Scholastic Book Fair, the result was an unbeatable combination.
Of the thousands of book fairs held in schools across the nation, St. Marys was selected as the national winner of Scholastics annual book fair competition.
Frank Loose, Scholastics senior marketing manager, flew to Wooster May 3 to present St. Marys School principal Richard Carestia with a check for $2,000 for the purchase of books for the schools library.
For a school library that is almost entirely self-supporting and relies on donations to add to its collection, taking home first place honors means more books to fuel the students love of reading.
While the school has been tantalizingly close to winning the prize in the past, according to Loose what caught the attention of the judges was a voluminous scrapbook documenting the book fair submitted with the application by book fair organizer Kathy Gorman.
Shown within the pages of the scrapbook was clear evidence of the high level of support given to the book fair by students, teachers and parents alike.
More than one third of the parents volunteered their time during the book fair. Students pitched in, too, by creating decorations and preparing commercials for the book fair that were then broadcast over the schools TV system.
Leading up to the book fair, students were asked to write about their own personal heroes, who were honored at a school wide assembly and added to the schools Hall of Fame.
Students also had the opportunity to raise funds for the library by voting for their favorite goal reward event by placing loose change in the jar corresponding to their event of choice.
But according to Loose, what really put the school over the top this year and catapulted it beyond schools 10 times its size was one photograph contained in the scrapbook.
Before the book fair began, St. Marys pastor, Fr. Steven Moran, pledged to take a leap of faith, while wearing a Superman costume, over an enormous pile of books representing the amount donated to the school library during the fair, should the school set a new book fair sales record.
When the students smashed their previous record he was as good as his word.
As the large crowd of excited students, teachers and parents at the school wide assembly looked on, Fr. Moran - Superman cape and all - easily cleared the large stack of books.
In addition to receiving a check from Scholastic, the students were also treated to an appearance by New York Times best-selling author Margaret Peterson Haddix.
During a pair of student assemblies, Haddix shared insights into the inspiration for the more than 30 books for children and teens she has written, including the Shadow Children, Missing and Among the series.
I decided at a very young age that I wanted to be an author, Haddix told the students.
According to Haddix, after obtaining degrees in journalism, creative writing and history from Miami of Ohio, she worked as a newspaper reporter and used her experiences covering local and national events as the inspiration for her early books.
With the popularity of her books on the rise, Haddix left her job with the newspaper to concentrate full time on writing books for young adults.
Her work has been honored with the International Reading Association Childrens Book Award, the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults and state readers choice lists in 16 states.
