Earlier this week, on Monday, March the third, children realized the power of the written word. On a day marking the birth of a man they call Seuss, students read all day and were allowed to cut loose. This story doesn’t take place on mountains or steeples, but in a third grade classroom at a school they call Peeples.

Read Across America, an event sponsored by the National Education Association, is a national reading celebration held in conjunction with Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Students all over the country read books all throughout the school day and tend to have reading themed events or special guests visit their class.

The 21 students in Sonya Farr’s third grade class at Peeples Elementary School decided to hold a read-a-thon to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, because one of their classmates has a relative with this disease.

Students solicited either per-book or flat donations from their family members, friends and neighbors, and once school started on Monday, the students sat down at their desks or, in some cases, found a nice place to curl up on the floor with a pillow, and started reading.

Though the class had raised $581 in flat donations before the event even started, Farr put up a donation of a dime a book for all of her students, to make sure they would read as many books as they could before the final bell rang.

“These students are going to cost me some money today,” Farr admitted. Outside of breaks for lunch and recess, the students were hard at work proving Farr correct, reading books about characters such as Captain Underpants, Miss Malarkey, Arthur and, of course, a certain cat with a hat.

Her class came up with the idea of a read-a-thon last week during a class meeting. It was not the first selfless act this young group has conducted this year.

The class also decided to skip their class Christmas party this year and visit Heritage of Peachtree City, an assisted living home. The students had been pen pals with some of the residents and visited the facility before the holiday, putting on a show for their new friends, playing Bingo and bringing them lap blankets they had made.

“This is a great bunch. They are so giving, accepting and helpful to others,” said Farr, explaining that six of the students in the class have cochlear implants.

The students have been together with their teacher since second grade and Farr feels like their connection has made them like a little family.

Farr’s students read 322 books on Monday and raised $1,241.40 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, but perhaps the biggest lesson that the students learned, and continue to learn, is that coming together to help people just feels good.

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