Celebrating National Reading Month
By: Thu Tran, Events and Coordination Manager
March has been a month of excitement as we hosted our annual March Book Madness Celebration & Literacy Fair! In honor of National Reading Month, Center for Success Network (CFSN) organized a variety of events and activities to spread the love of reading among our students, mentors, and the community.
Here’s a glimpse into the amazing activities that made this year’s celebration unforgettable:
March Book Madness Bracket Competition:
One of the highlights of our March activities was the March Book Madness bracket competition. Similar to the basketball tournaments we all know, our team selects 16 amazing books to face off against each other. Every week, the different CFSN sites will read the books and vote on which book they think deserved to move on in the competition. It’s exciting to see which books make it to the Elite Eight, then the Final Four, and finally, the Champion.
This year, we hit a record submission of 123 book brackets!! It was a fantastic way to encourage reading while sparking friendly competition.
Read-A-Thon:
In addition to the Book Brackets, we hosted a Read-A-Thon where students and mentors teamed up during their semi-weekly mentoring sessions. The challenge was simple: read as many minutes as possible. Across all our sites, our students read a total of 22,259 minutes!
In-Person and Virtual Author Events:
Another huge part of March Book Madness are the author read-alouds. These events allow our community to interact with authors, dive into new stories, and have a truly immersive literary experience.
Here’s a recap of the events:
Monday, March 10th: We kicked off the festivities with a Virtual Author Read-Aloud featuring Melissa Márquez, author of Mother of Sharks. This was an exciting and interactive virtual event that brought the community together for a wonderful evening of storytelling. Thank you to Melissa for calling in from Sydney, Australia!
Monday, March 17th: The following week, we welcomed Carol K Lomasney, author of I Grew Very Brave, for an In-Person Author Read-Aloud at our Detroit Hub. Thank you to Carol for sharing your book and interactive activity for our students!
Thursday, March 20th: The grand finale of our March Book Madness was the Final Celebration and Literacy Fair held at UWM ReImagine Recreation in Pontiac. The event featured two engaging author read-alouds with Alicia and Quan, along with food, games, and many other activities, uniting the community to celebrate the joy of reading! A big thank you to Alicia Jenkins for sharing Isaac Can Do It and to Quan Neloms for reading Quantum and the Empath: Court of Confusion and hosting a VR station!
This year’s March Book Madness Celebration & Literacy Fair was great, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with how the community came together. Special shoutout to Hooper, Detroit Pistons, Aquatots, Comcast, and amazing organizations including The University of Michigan, Centro Multicultural La Familia, Great Start Collaborative Oakland, Brilliant Pontiac, United Way for Southeastern Michigan, City of Pontiac, and Detroit Parent Network for your collaboration and support.
The passion for reading that everyone showed throughout the month was truly inspiring, and we look forward to more opportunities to connect. Stay tuned for more exciting events and opportunities from the Center for Success Network. Our reading journey never ends!
Follow us on social media and newsletters to hear about our upcoming events. If you are interested in learning more about CFSN and our events, email info@center4success.org to sign up for an info session!