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Published Sunday, October 18, 2009 in Education

'Caterpillar' crawls for record with 7,340 Coweta youngsters

Caterpillars may be slow-moving critters, but a fanciful one in a children's story made 7,340 Coweta children part of a world record event.

Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was read to children across the country on Oct. 8 for the international Read for the Record effort. In Coweta County, the total "far exceeded last year's record of 5,000," according to Paige Sport, project manager for United Way in Coweta and Fayette counties.

Central Educational Center "and all the public elementary schools in this county were involved," Sport said. "Additionally, 19 private schools and childcare facilities participated."

United Way of Coweta County and student interns with the Teacher Pipeline program delivered 250 copies of Carle's book to schools and daycare centers throughout the week preceding Read for the Record.

Thousands of schools, libraries and daycare center nationwide participated in Read for the Record, in an attempt to break a world record by reading the same story to more than one million children in one day.

Locally, United Way provided the books. That organization and the Teacher Pipeline program -- a high school through college teacher training program based at the CEC -- organized the local literacy event.

"Last year was the first year the United Way and the teacher interns organized a Coweta event, by donating copies of the children's story 'Corduroy' to schools and reading it to over 5,000 Coweta County children in one day," said Dean Jackson, spokesman for the Coweta County School System.

Dr. Susan Mullins, who directs the Teacher Pipeline program, said the McIntosh Trail Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa and Coweta County School System's Future Educators Association Chapters in middle and high schools have also helped make Read for the Record a reality locally.

"The event is tremendously empowering for children who actually participate in breaking a world record, in addition to sharing the same book at the same time with children from Asia to Africa to Australia," Sport said. "Read for the Record represents an amazing opportunity for the entire community from preschoolers through retirees to join together in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of early childhood literacy."

The local United Way office provided 10 copies of "Caterpillar" for each elementary school, and for several local private schools and daycare centers. Volunteers -- including Pipeline interns, retired teachers and other community volunteers -- read the book at the schools, particularly to younger grades.

Mullins worked with interns to sort the books and deliver them. "My CEC Teacher Pipeline Level I teaching interns worked fast and furiously to package books and letters to send to all elementary schools," said Mullins.

She said all the Teacher Pipeline interns across the county read at an elementary schools. Mullins said the students were "excited about it."

"Read for the Record is organized each year to raise public awareness about the importance of childhood literacy," Jackson said.

Georgia first lady Mary Perdue read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to students at Harbin Elementary School in Dacula on Read for the Record Day. State School Superintendent Kathy Cox and members of the State Board of Education read the book to students at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf.