Book parade a hit at Struthers Elementary

Struthers Book Parade

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STRUTHERS

Whether it was a large lobster statue, an enormous eyeball or a cat dressed as a teacher, it wasn’t too out of the ordinary to find its way onto Dominic Liptak’s poster.

“I went to Barnes & Noble [Booksellers] and saw the book,” the 10-year-old Struthers Elementary School fourth-grader said, referring to one of the books in the “National Geographic Kids: Ultimate Weird but True” series, which features age-appropriate information on unusual facts, stories and photographs, and which served as the model for his colorful creation.

Dominic, who enjoys reading adventure books, was not shy about discussing or holding up his poster, both of which he did during Friday afternoon’s second annual Struthers Elementary School Book Parade at the school, 520 Ninth St.

Nearly all the school’s 703 students in kindergarten through fourth grade jubilantly marched through the halls with their teachers carrying posters the youngsters had made that contained images, scenes and characters from their favorite books. The parade capped the end of the school’s Right to Read Week.

Many of the students’ posters included references to several popular Dr. Seuss books such as “Green Eggs and Ham,” as well as famous titles that included “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter.” One girl carried a poster about Anne Frank, a Jewish teenage girl from Germany who wrote the best-selling journal, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which chronicles her two years in hiding from the Nazis during World War II before she was captured and killed in a concentration camp at age 15.

Preceding the parade was a weeklong series of reading-related events that included a guest storyteller, a read-a-thon, Buddy Reading (combining two classrooms of older and younger children to further foster reading enhancement) and a “Doggie Brigade,” for the top three classes that had read the highest number of books, Principal Dennis Hynes noted.

Fourth-grader Marissa Metzka, 10, spent much of three days after school drawing and coloring her poster based on “The Kingdom Keepers,” a series of Disney-themed children’s novels by Ridley Pearson.

“I go to Disney [World in Orlando, Fla.,] every year with my family,” Marissa said in explaining the main source of inspiration for her poster.

Marissa did most of the large poster herself, but worked in tandem with her mother on the several drawings of people at the bottom.

The finished poster also brought back fond memories of her trips to Disney World, Marissa said.

The parade and programs before it went a long way toward getting the students to think about and further appreciate reading, said Sandy Horvath, the school’s literacy coordinator.

She added, “Many kids still love to read, and lots of parents value reading.”

Horvath said the parade also was inspired by the late Cliff Jamieson, a beloved former fourth-grade teacher at the school, and Kristy Taaffe, who was a mascot at last year’s reading event and served as the Struthers PTA president before she died July 3, 2016, at age 38.

“In my heart, I hold the parade for those two people,” Horvath added.