PHOTO BY DEBBIE SADLON
Friday, April 11, 2014; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School, W. 70th and Detroit Avenue: Kindergarten student, Arihanna Aqqad, age 6, enjoys a piece of pizza. She nods her head affirmatively when asked if she read a lot of books this year and says, “That’s why we got to have this party.” Students from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School enjoyed a pizza and ice cream party as a reward for the huge volume of books they read this year. Language Arts teacher Becky Rivera organized the reading campaign. A construction paper chain link rope – with each link representing a book read by one of the 245 students in grades Pre-K to Eighth Grade – was long enough to wrap 2 times around the school.