During last year’s book fair, at Brandon Elementary, there was a challenge between Mr. Keith (Principal), Mrs. McClendon (Assistant Principal) and Mrs. Martin (the librarian). Students donated extra change (or dollars) to each of them. Mrs. Martin’s box had the most money, so she was the “winner” to be taped to a wall. The event was planned for the last week of school, but an injury cause Mrs. Martin to not be able to participate at that time. She is better now, and made good on the challenge.
In choosing the participants to do the taping, Mrs. Martin had a drawing, where students spent a certain dollar amount to guess how many dinosaurs were in a jar. Parker T., now a 6th grader, guessed the exact amount of 210 dinosaurs.
She invited Parker T. and 2 guests of his choice, C.J. and his sister Izzy, to come to Brandon early Tuesday morning, before he headed off to Lufkin Middle School.
Mrs. Martin also kept track of the amounts of donations to the boxes and chose the highest contributors. They were each able to invite a guest to help. Students that did the taping were Reese and Emma, Audrey and Evelyn, and Sam F. A former student, Sam S., would have been invited, but he moved out of district, and he was missed!
Mrs. Martin was thankful to the adult helpers; especially parent volunteer, Mrs. Tanksley, and 5th grade teachers, Mrs. Winters and Ms. Vann.
“It was the perfect taping event,” said Mrs. Martin. “The timing was perfect. We did it in 15 minutes, before 7:40am. Sam F. was so kind to ask if I was ok, and if I was able to breathe. I was fine. I have to admit though, I was very nervous that the tape would not hold me up on the wall, and I was afraid of falling, but the students engineered it so that I was safe, and it actually worked,” she further exclaimed.
Mrs. Martin said the best outcome of this event is that $164 extra dollars were raised to buy more books for the library. She can’t wait for the next challenge to see who will win the chance to get a bucket of ice water dumped on them for the Arctic Adventure Book Fair 😉 .