051611 Leap of faith earns St. Marys School national recognition
Summary: St. Marys School in Wooster has been named the national winner of Scholastic Books annual competition to select the best book fair in America.
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.
Scholastics Senior Marketing Manager Frank Loose flew to Wooster on May 3 to present St. Marys School principal Richard Carestia with a check for $2000 for the purchase 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 judges attention was a voluminous scrapbook documenting the book fair submitted with the application by book fair organizer Kathy Gorman.
Within the scrapbooks pages was clear evidence of the high level of support given to the book fair by students, teachers and parents alike.
Over one third of the schools parents volunteered their time during the book fair. Students pitched in too by creating decorations and preparing commercials for the book fair 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 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 ten 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 over an enormous pile of books representing the amount donated to the school library during the fair in a Superman costume 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 bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix.
During a pair of student assemblies, Haddix shared insights into the inspiration for her over 30 books for children and teens 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 attending 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.
Haddixs work has been honored with the International Reading Association Children's Book Award, the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults and state readers' choice lists in sixteen states.