A mysterious air filled the room last Wednesday afternoon as the students and staff at Oaklawn Elementary School gathered together, sitting in suspense as they waited to hear why Principal Jim Zanfini had gathered everyone together.

Equally as mysterious were the students who were chosen to sit in a special seating area at the front of the room along with several honorary guests – some known, some unknown.

Unbeknownst to the students, they had achieved a great success as a school just doing what they normally do – reading over the summer. In doing so, they’d read a total of 98,936 minutes, the most of any school in Rhode Island that participated in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge.

Rhode Island First Lady Stephanie Chafee was there to celebrate, along with Jaqueline Dodge and Julie Dyson of Scholastic and Assistant Principal Jeannine Nota-Masse.

“A lot of you are wondering why you are here, and why we have some of our friend sitting up front,” Zanfini said when the assembly had begun. “Think back to the time this past June when we sent home some letters talking about the importance of continuing to do your reading, your math, your writing all through the summer so that you’d be ready for next year’s grade levels. Well, earlier this school year I received a phone call from someone named Jackie, who said she was from Scholastic, and that our school had read the most minutes of any school in Rhode Island for their reading challenge.”

Zanfini’s news caused the cafeteria to erupt with applause and cheers from the staff and students, and he introduced the day’s first special guest, Chafee.

“You are all rock stars and you don’t know how proud I am of each and every one of you to take the time out of your summer to do the summer reading,” she said. “I have dyslexia and I find it hard to read, hard to spell. These are very difficult things for me.”

She asked the audience how many others had similar difficulties, and then passed along some valuable tips to them.

“I used to not think of myself as a good reader, but now I think of myself as a very good reader, and I found that it was helpful to listen to books on tape and follow along with the book,” Chafee said. “This taught me to read well, and now I know it’s so easy to get lost in a great, great story.”

Chafee asked five students to share their favorite reads from the summer and four sentences about them with her. She then told the students that she was issuing them her own challenge.

“Even though my husband will no longer be governor next school year, I promise you that if you top this year’s minutes and read 100,000 or more minutes next summer, I will personally come back and give you a pizza lunch.”

Dyson congratulated the school as well, presenting Zanfini with a plaque and explaining just how special a distinction this honor was.

“So many schools in Rhode Island participated in our challenge,” she said. “You are number one, and being number one is a very special honor.”

Zanfini gave special mention to the students in the front of the room, each who had read the top number of minutes for the school – Ella Rose, Pallavi Kamsani, Emily Sullivan, Vincent Melillo, Julia Shellard, Marshall Coupe, Samuel Latzman and Naia Vince-Cruz. Latzman and Vince-Cruz were chosen to hold the banner that the school had received, which denotes their honor and distinction.

“Now we know, we have lots of great things coming out of Cranston, specifically out of Oaklawn School. Now our city is not only known for having Miss USA and Miss Universe, but we are now known for Oakawn School having the top readers in Rhode Island,” Zanfini said.