By Steve Huffman
Salisbury Post
Accelerated Readers from Overton Elementary School were rewarded Thursday for their hard work of recent weeks.
They were rewarded by getting to go through drills with football and tennis players from Catawba College.
“Oh, the kids loved it,” said Kathy Green, media coordinator at Overton. “It’s good for them to look up to these college students as positive role models.”
She noted that several of the football players from Catawba grew up in the same neighborhoods where the Overton students live, proving to the younger children that hard work pays big dividends.
Green said 179 children from kindergarten through fifth grade completed their Accelerated Reader requirements to qualify for Thursday’s activities with the Catawba athletes.
Green said students did so by meeting their individual reading goals and demonstrating a mastery of what they’d read.
Accelerated Reader is a nationwide program that encourages children to read, then scores their comprehension of the material. It has been popular for years.
Green said students who complete their Accelerated Reader requirements are rewarded each quarter.
“Instead of giving them trinkets or other prizes, we decided to go this route this quarter,” Green said of the visit by Catawba athletes.
She said students had an opportunity to go through three drill stations ó three involving football and three involving tennis.
In the area of football, students took lessons involving passing, kicking and running a tire maze.
In tennis, they practiced forehand shots, lobs and net shots.
Contact Steve Huffman at 704-797-4222 or shuffman@salisburypost.com.