Rotary Club unveils Rock to Read initiative in April

To celebrate this year’s National Library Week, the Rotary Club of Saipan will be holdings its inaugural Rock to Read program this April.

For the past nine years, the civic organization focused its energies on the CNMI’s elementary students with its popular Parade of Books and dictionary drives each year.

This year, however, the organization will shuffle things up, with the 2014 Rock to Read that will cater to the islands’ junior high and high school students.

All CNMI junior high and high school teams are encouraged to register immediately by emailing their team name, advisor, and team captains to saipanrotary@gmail.com.

The 2014 Rock to Read program calls for a team of students—after reading a book of their choosing from the official Rotary book list—to present a creative dance or song performance based on the book to compete for cash prizes.

Rotary Club president Laila Y. Boyer said the criteria for the competition are that elements of the story from the approved book must be incorporated or highlighted in the performance, performers should show creativity and originality in bringing the story to life in song or dance, performance must be a minimum of three minutes, and not more than five minutes and performance includes a minimum of five students and up to the maximum of 35.

“We are so excited to see the creativity of the junior high and high school teams this year. They will be taking a book and turning it into a live song or dance performance—hence, Rock to Read,” said Boyer.

“We are aware that reading scores among junior high and high school students drop dramatically in the CNMI, so we would like to highlight the importance of reading and put a little fun into it,” she said. “We are also choosing books and stories that carry the values of Rotary…There is so much learning and skills that are incorporated into this event it should not be missed.”

Coordinators for the event are Rotary Vocational directors Tom Thornburg and Marcia Ayuyu.

Up for grabs is a $1,000 cash prize for first place, $750 for second place, $500 for third place, $300 for fourth place, $200 for fifth place, and $100 for consolation prizes.

The book list will be available soon on the Rotary Club of Saipan’s Facebook page. To register, email saipanrotary@gmail.com.