Pro football player Rashad Jennings is welcomed to Auten Road Intermediate School. (Photo courtesy of Kia Bergman)
NY Giants’ Rashad Jennings surprised Auten Road School 5th graders Feb. 17 to help them celebrate their Reading Challenge success over the past month.
The Reading Challenge program was started by Mr. Jennings. The challenge has one major goal: to get students excited about reading.
During the month, students read as many books as they could. Students then were asked about the content. When the student passed, he or she was entered into a drawing to win prizes.
The reading challenge was brought by grade 5 teacher Marissa Marton, a Giants fan who thought the challenge could ignite students’ love of reading. It sure did: 5th graders read more than 750 books.
On Feb. 17, the students were invited to an assembly to celebrate. The students were amazed as a surprise guest walked through the door — Rashad Jennings himself.
He spoke about some of his own life struggles and shared a motivating and inspirational speech. He talked about the importance of reading and working hard to overcome adversities to achieve personal goals.
He then pulled 24 students’ names from the reading entries. Students won autographed practice cleats, game-worn gloves and photographs.
