Making Reading Fun

Ellen Scalettar, Woodbridge's First Selectman, and 14 community leaders participated in Beecher Road School’s “Read Across America” event on Friday, March 7.

Read Across America is a national event held on Dr. Seuss’s birthday. During the event, community members are invited to read a Dr. Seuss book to students as a fun way to promote life-long literacy and learning.

Volunteer readers included State Representative Themis Klarides, First Selectman Ellen Scalettar, Board of Selectmen Tony Anastasio Jr. and Joe Dey, Board of Finance members Karen Cusick and Andrew Esposito, Woodbridge Superintendent Dr. Guy Stella, Amity Superintendent Dr. Chip Dumais, Board of Education chair Margaret Hamilton, Woodbridge Director of Administration and Finance Tony Genovese, Woodbridge Human Services Director Mary Ellen LaRocca, Woodbridge Youth Services Director Nancy Pfund, and parents Tim Kelly, Emily Melnick and business owner Chris Dickerson.

Like many visitors, Scalettar read to two classrooms, including Mrs. Dee Don’s class which was in the middle of a unit about government. Mrs. Don had tasked her class with researching Woodbridge’s government and the town’s elected leader.

There was a short talk about Town government followed by plenty of questions, such as “Is it hard being a First Selectman?” (Answer: “Yes, but it’s very rewarding.”)

While Scalettar read Dr. Seuss’s “Thudwick the Big Hearted Moose” a recently mastered vocabulary word—forlorn—was discussed. Scalettar asked if the class knew the word. “It means sad,” explained a student. When another vocabulary word—“scarce”—was mentioned, a buzz of recognition went through the class.

“We like to bathe our children in a sea of literacy,” Woodbridge Superintendent Dr. Gaetano Stella told a crowd of community leaders gathered in the library.

“We believe a school should have no walls,” said Stella later on. “And what better way to demonstrate that than bringing in our community leaders to the classroom for a learning experience. Today learning came alive in a fun way. That is our constant theme: We are fostering a love of learning and trying to foster life-long learners and readers.”