Read a Million Minutes


The Read a Million Minutes program held in South Hamilton's elementary school this year came to an exciting finish Friday.  As motivation to young readers, each 15 minutes spent reading at home entitled students to one vote for a male and female teacher they wanted to see kiss a pig.  The promise was that the top finalists would kiss the pig if the goal of 200,000 total minutes was reached in a month.

Since students recorded 293,746 minutes, greatly surpassing their goal, the teachers receiving the most votes were on hand ready to pucker up.  Shown above are Mrs. Walker, female teacher receiving the most votes, and Burt Vust, representing top male vote-getter, Ivan Vust.  Burt, Ivan's identical twin brother, told students that Ivan was afraid to come kiss the pig.  When students made a loud protest, Burt left to find his brother, who finally came to face up to the horrible task.

Ethan's dad brought the three week old pig.

It's so cute! says Mrs. Walker.
Notice her lip-protection in her left hand.

Mr. Ivan Vust doesn't seem to be looking forward to his horrible fate.
It's too bad his brother, Burt, made him come to face his task.
When Mr. Vust's lips finally touched the pig,
the pig squealed almost as much as the watching students did.

Principal Hemphill demonstrates real leadership by showing how proud he is of South Hamilton's great reading students.  Following the assembly, the Elementary Boosters handed out down at the fair treats to each student.