Submitted story

NORTH LEWISBURG – Every fall, Triad Elementary hosts a Fall Book Fair, like most schools.

However, for the last nine years Triad, has included a Grand (parent/person) Event luncheon to accompany the book fairs.

Our goal was to grow our students’ love for reading and allow family members to be an important part of that growth.

It started as a two day event where all students, preschool through 4th grade, could invite up to four guests to join them to eat lunch in the cafeteria and then shop at the book fair, which was held in the school library at that time.

Cardinals are known to flock together in the fall and Triad Cardinals are no different. Each year we had to add another day to our Grand Event to hold all the “Grand Guests” who wanted to support their little Cardinals. We are now up to five days of Grand Events and run the book fair for two weeks in a portion of our gymnasium.

Triad Schools would like to thank our community and the families of our students for their support of our Fall Book Fair. The support they gave our school by shopping at the book fair was generous but the support they showed our students was overwhelming.

We would like to share some results from our fall book fair which our Cardinal family made possible.

It seems so often people come to an event but they rarely know their impact. We want to let them know they made a difference and we are grateful.

Our book fair made a profit of $12,520 of which we are able to keep $6,260 in books and Scholastic Dollars. This will allow us to continue to buy books throughout the school year as well as other needed items.

The amazing results of our fall book fair also allowed us to fill our classroom libraries. All teachers were given the opportunity to fill out a wishlist before the fair started. We were able to fulfill all those wishlists and more totaling $1,926 worth of books. That means brand new books in the hands of students as they enjoy their classroom library as well as the school library.

While those numbers are very exciting, the numbers that may be most impressive are from our Grand Event days. During our Grand Days we hosted over 560 guests. Ninety-three percent of our elementary students had at least one Grand guest join them during their Grand Event, bringing a special lunch or eating a school lunch with their student. How encouraging it is to see first hand the love our students have in their lives from such amazing “Grands.”

For the few students whose families were unable to attend, they had the “grandest” guest Triad has to offer. We had over 20 Triad staff members volunteer their time to step in and be a “Grand Volunteer” to these students. Every building in the district – central office, high school, middle school and the elementary – offered to share their love of reading with a child.

The book fair is a special time for students and staff alike and we thank all who were a part of making lasting memories with our students and encouraging their love for reading.

Information from Triad Local Schools