Hawley Car Wash Raises Money For Reading Lounge

By Eliza Hallabeck

A car wash held on Sunday, September 30, collected $1,547 in donations toward creating a Reading Lounge at Hawley Elementary School that will be for all students, staff, and faculty members at the school.

The car wash was the first of many future fundraising efforts to work toward the vision of the Reading Lounge, says Hawley fourth grade teacher Lea Attanasio.

While visiting Columbia University, Ms Attanasio said some teachers at Hawley learned from Lucy Calkins, a world-renown leader in literacy, that the amount of reading students do is the most important predictor of reading success.

“So we are always thinking of how to get our students to read more, get excited about reading, and finding opportunities for them to read,” said Ms Attanasio, following the car wash.

After it was decided that a room that serves as a place for small group instruction could also serve as a space for a reading area, Ms Attanasio said the fourth grade teachers talked about what the possibilities of a reading space could be. The vision is a less formal space, with comfortable seating options, nice lighting, a relaxing paint color on the walls, and, of course, many books.

In other words, Ms Attanasio explained, the room would be “a place where reading would be irresistible.”

The fourth grade teaching team then decided to incorporate part of the fourth grade social studies curriculum, which teaches students the rights and responsibilities that come along with being citizens. Students in fourth grade complete community service projects as part of the curriculum, and, according to Ms Attanasio, the teachers wanted to make the Reading Lounge a large community service project for the entire grade.

And nearly the entire grade showed up on Sunday to help wash cars and hold signs to bring in passersby.

The project, Ms Attanasio said, has found support throughout the Hawley community, including from the school’s PTA.

The fourth grade students are now busy brainstorming other ways they can help raise money for the proposed Reading Lounge, and Ms Attanasio said other events will be held to help build donations for the effort. Donations can also be made directly to the effort. For more information about donating to the cause, e-mail Ms Attanasio at attanasiol@newtown.k12.ct.us.

At Hawley, Ms Attanasio said, the teachers constantly search for excellent literature for students to read and for creative lessons and activities to engage the students in literacy work. A community effort to create the Reading Lounge joins a number of other reading programs at the school, including a senior citizen book club and a student-parent memoir writing workshop.

“The creation of a Reading Lounge for our school would mean that we could expand the work that we value so highly and continually strive to do: create lifelong lovers of reading,” said Ms Attanasio.

On Sunday, Ms Attanasio said Steve Richardson, one of the school’s janitors, came early to set up stations for the car wash, and he stayed for the day’s effort. Every car that left Hawley’s parking lot on Sunday, Ms Attanasio said, pulled out shiny and bright.