Waverly's Randy Reader Takes Final Bow

Randy Reader ended his illustrious career Thursday night after 26 years of teaching kids at Waverly Elementary School that "Reading is Fun." 

Retiring alongside Randy Reader is co-creator Marie McNair, who along with Susan Hart, developed the Randy Reader program, which encourages children at Waverly to find enjoyment in reading and celebrates their achievements.

"We created this program to help instill the joy of reading in the children," said Hart, who added that it started when they saw how children were reading books in reading groups at school and they wanted to promote the idea that reading is fun.

McNair said on average 150,000 books are read every year. This year the number of books read came in at 116, 494. Hart and McNair advised that this year the number of children involved was lower than other years.

When asked why the Randy Reader program was coming to an end this year McNair said that they always knew the program would end one day and that with her retiring this year it was the right time.

 Kerry Quinn, the current Vice President of the PTA and the President Elect for next years PTA said the Building Leadership Team (BLT) is currently working on creating a new reading program for next year to implement into the school.

Quinn also said the number of pages that the children read gets tracked on charts in the hallways of the schools. The program begins during the summer prior to the school year when children can choose books off summer reading lists and then continues throughout the rest of the year.

Depending on the number of pages read, children will either receive a trophy or a ribbon during the award ceremony. The event, which took place over two nights, featured performances by both McNair and Hart's fifth grade classes, some of the staff from the elementary school and of course, featured a solo dance performance by Randy Reader himself.

It was a bittersweet ending as Randy Reader said his final goodbye. After years of visiting children in their classrooms to encourage them to keep on reading and presenting them with achievement certificates his message will live on for all those who have come to know him.