PLS Students Help to Break World Record

October 15 2007

Portland Lutheran School students are very familiar with using a library. PLS has a well equipped library run by librarian Natalie Bishop. Students begin visiting the library in preschool. Mrs. Bishop leads programs from how to check out books to how to research and write papers.

It is no surprise that PLS elementary students were thrilled by the opportunity to read a book and get into the Guinness Book of World Records at the same time. PLS students were part of an attempt organized by Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, a national literacy campaign designed to encourage hundreds of thousands of children and adults from across the country to read the same book on the same day. Matt Laurer and Meredith Vieria of NBC’s “Today Show” kicked off the event in the morning, reading along with school children in Rockefeller Square in New York City. By day’s end, more than 250,000 people, including First Lady Laura Bush, had read the book, according to Jumpstart, which notes it surpassed the previous record of more than 150,000 people set last year. The local effort occurred at Rockwood Library, 17917 S.E. Stark St., where Julie Morefield, a library staff member, read the book to the Portland Lutheran School students, as well as students from Davis elementary, which is located nearby. Morefield notes that she also planned to read later that day to students from Alder Elementary School, in the Reynolds district. Linda Soulé, who teaches third and fourth grade at Portland Lutheran, says Natalie Bishop, school librarian, helped to organize the record-breaking reading excursion, and adds that the students were eager to go to the library.

Read the complete story atThe Gresham Outlook.