Oleai Elementary tops Parade of Books

Oleai Elementary School emerged the winning school in the 8th Annual Parade of Books hosted by the Rotary Club of Saipan at the Marianas High School Gymnasium last Saturday.

The Home of the Turtles won the grand prize of $1,000 after garnering a total score of 146.4 points for their interpretation of The Legend of the Blue Bonnet, a story about a girl who sacrificed her most prized possession to save her people from famine.

Oleai Elementary School, which bested six other public and private elementary schools, also bagged the Best Director award which came with a prize of one overnight stay at Pacific Islands Club.

This is the fifth time that Oleai Elementary School has won the Parade of Books. They also triumphed in the contest in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011.

“The story was hard, the preparations were hard. The students were not familiar with the story. We worked on it to give them our interpretation of the story,” said Tina Tenorio, one of the three coaches and directors of the team comprised of about 30 students and practiced for a month. The others were Jasylene Parico and Charlene Valle.

Frantia Sablan, who played the role of the sun, said she has been participating since third grade in the annual competition that promotes literacy among elementary students.

“It was hard but it’s worth it because we won. I’m very happy,” said the 9-year-old fifth grader.

Fifth grade teacher and parent Carla Sablan said that even parents and families of students contributed to the success of Oleai’s victory.

“Everybody really worked hard for it and they deserve credit,” she added.

Danika Aguon, 11, said that their four weeks of hard work paid off and two-hour practices after school all paid off.

“It was very difficult but once we got the hang of it, everything went well. I’m very happy that we won on my last year at Oleai,” said the sixth grader who had a part as one of the villagers.

The winning team were cheering and chanting as they accepted their award from the Rotary officers and members.

The other winners were Koblerville Elementary School, second place and Best in Spirit Award, taking home $750 and 30 PIC Waterpark passes for Best in Spirit Award; San Vicente Elementary School, third place, $500; Dandan Elementary School, fourth place, $300; and Kagman Elementary School, fifth place, $200.

Consolation prizes of $100 were given to Golden Harvest and Sinapalo Elementary School, which couldn’t make it to the actual event and instead sent a DVD copy of their presentation.

Competing schools were judged based on closeness to time frame, costume depiction, enthusiasm of participants, vocal clarity, and adherence to the theme.

The panel of judges included PIC’s Vicky Benavente, Delta Air Lines representative Esther Sound, and Kagman High School vice principal Leila Staffler.

Staffler, who served as the contest judge for the first time, commended the participants for their creativity and innovativeness in their presentations that depicted their chosen books and said all the winners were very deserving.

“They put so much hard work into the creativity of it all. It was amazing; I was blown away,” Staffler told Saipan Tribune.

For her part, parade coordinator Reina Camacho said, “It’s quite astonishing the creativity that comes out and I know it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of practice and I would like to extend my appreciation to the parents for allowing their kids to participate in this event because I also know it takes time away from family time and school work.”

Camacho said they will continue to host the Annual Parade of Books and make it coincide with the Public School System’s Library Week celebration.

Rotary president Pete Igitol believes that their organization accomplished their objective to promote literacy among students.

“I hope they continue to read. There’s a lot of things you can find out through reading. The more they read, the more they learn and they can pass it on to others,” he added.