When Ashton was in second grade (Spring 2013), the school district partnered with Whataburger to host a reading competition for elementary school students. If a student read at least 250 pages during the competition time period (6 weeks), the student would get two free tickets to a Texas A&M Men's Basketball game. In addition, the overall winner (student who read the most pages) would get a basketball with autographs of the players. There would be two overall winners, one for the Kindergarten - 3rd Grade group and one for the 4th - 6th Grade group.
Ashton was super motivated to win this competition. He was constantly reading. After he read a book, he would carefully enter the title of the book and number of pages on his reading log. Annette and I had to sign as his parents to certify that he read the books. At the end of the month, Ashton had read nearly 10,000 pages. He was so excited to turn in his report.
Ashton and Tate both met the minimum number of pages, so we had four free tickets to the basketball game. The school librarian told Ashton that he had read the most pages from his school, Southwood Valley. She told him to be sure to go to the game because they were going to recognize the students who read the most from each school during halftime on the basketball court.
We went to the basketball game. Just before halftime, I went with Ashton down to the floor to meet with the librarian from Southwood Valley. One of the teachers came to meet us as well wearing the Eagle mascot costume.
At halftime, the announcer called the name of the top readers from each school. The students went to the middle of the court to line up. After all the kids were on the court, the announcer then announced the overall winner for the two groups. Ashton was announced as the Kindergarten through 3rd Grade overall winner. He was presented with a goodie bag from Whataburger and a basket ball that was signed by the Aggie Men's Basketball coach and players.
After he came off the court, he got to have his picture taken with two of the Aggie Yell Leaders! Ashton was so excited that he won. I am including a copy of the essay he wrote about "The Grandprize."
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| Ashton's essay about the competition |
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| on the court with the school mascot |
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| with the Aggie Yell Leaders |
When Ashton was in 3rd grade, he won the overall competition again. Southwood Valley was also recognized as the school that read the most pages.
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| on the court as a 3rd grader |
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| with the librarian and the other Southwood Valley students |
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