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| 03-08-2005 | Previous edition: 03-07-2005 |
        
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Printer-friendly version 'Reading Extravaganza' draws crowd
Assistant Features Editor A sea of miniature outstretched hands and wiggling bodies encircled Purdue’s first lady Patty Jischke, who listened intently as she read from the book, "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato." A resounding whine of "Eeeww!" came from the crowd of youngsters as she asked who in the audience liked to eat the vegetable. Jischke was entertaining a troupe of over 100 children from around the Greater Lafayette community for Purdue Mortar Board’s "Reading Extravaganza," an annual service event at the Purdue Memorial Union that she volunteered to participate in along with many other big names at Purdue. "It’s high pressure in a sense because you’re trying to show very young children how important literacy is," said Jischke before her reading. Which can be quite difficult at times. Brandon Kirsch, Purdue football quarterback, participated by reading some "classic Dr. Seuss," and said it was a little bit of a challenge keeping the children calm. "There was a kid in the back who wanted to be everything," said Kirsch. "He was the frog, the chair and everything else. He was standing the entire time." Kirsch is a veteran of the event, participating two years ago as a reader. This year will mark the fifth anniversary of the "Reading Extravaganza," which has won the national Mortar Board Project Excellence service award for the last 4 years in a row. With more than 200 college chapters, the award is quite an honor. "It’s one of the bigger service events nationally for Mortar Board because there are about 600 children total that will attend," said Betsy Marti, Mortar Board adviser. "Having young kids seeing their role models enjoying reading is so important." The children in attendance, traveling from Battle Ground, Burnett Creek, Cumberland, Klondike, Mayflower Mill and Miami elementary schools, enjoyed a special surprise with the appearance of Purdue Pete halfway through the readings. Children swarmed around Purdue’s mascot and wrestled away his hammer. When the commotion finally died down, the focus switched back to the current book about to be read. "Thank you, Pete, for keeping my seat warm!" said Jischke as she made her way to the front of the room before her reading. Purdue’s first lady particularly enjoys participating in this type of service event because of her personal love for reading. "Martin and I joke that we can’t afford our book habits," she said, laughing. "So we have to go to the library for books pretty regularly." She went on to explain that reading to a child for at least 20 minutes a day will give them a "phenomenal start" in school. "Books require a child to be an active thinker, much more so than when they watch TV." Other readers in attendance were Morgan Burke, director of Intercollegiate Athletics; Robert Ringel, professor of speech, language and hearing sciences; Alan York, professor of entomology; Brock Spack, defensive coordinator for Purdue football; Ben Jones, Purdue football player, as well as most of the Purdue volleyball team. "It’s a great chance to showcase all of these wonderful people who are involved with the University," said Marti. "It’s big and unique, and everyone seems to really enjoy participating." Printer-friendly version |
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