STORY AND PHOTO BY ANNELIESE TURCK

Sun Valley Community School Elementary School students have presented The Hunger Coalition with a check for $13,086.25, raised through the school’s recent Read-a-Thon.

Themed “Read to Feed,” this year’s event incorporated reading and service learning and benefitted The Hunger Coalition. Beginning on February 22 and ending on March 8, students raised money through their voracious reading efforts and participated in service opportunities (that began February 8.

They included an all-school canned/boxed food and formula drive that raked in 1,370 pounds of food, tours of The Hunger Coalition Warehouse for students in grades 2-5, and planting and caring for 500 seed starts for grades K-2 that will be donated to The Hunger Coalition in the spring. 

Sun Valley Community School students in grades K-5 read a staggering total of 74,376 minutes, with the top reader award going to 5th grade student Charlie St. George, who read 3,389 minutes.

Students who secured the most pledges for the Read-a-Thon to benefit The Hunger Coalition include  Asher May, Jack Heinz, Hazel Buck, Claire Buck and Harrison Black. Co-chairs for this year’s Read-a-Thon were Sara Pettit and Kristen Dittami. 

“At Sun Valley Community School, we believe that being of service to our school and our community is an essential component of leading an impactful, purposeful life,” said Elementary School Head Janet Salvoni. “By turning this year’s Read-a-Thon into a “Read-to-Feed,” I feel that we lived up to that expectation through seed planting, warehouse visits, food donations, and collection of pledges. To see the outpouring of support from our community for The Hunger Coalition, was incredibly heartwarming. The entire collaboration was an amazing success!”

Additional pledges are still being tallied.