Fireside school surpassed its goal of $18,000 with this years' Read-A-Thon event. 100 per cent of the money collected goes directly towards funding the future Outdoor Learning Space.

All students were urged to participate in the Read-A-Thon to make this a fun event for the school and a way to create a love of reading. The fundraised amounts will go towards the school's new Outdoor Learning Space, where they'll be able to sit and read in the future.

Classes of the same grade can connect with each other, becoming virtual reading buddies, creating a spirit of friendly competition. Bella Tanzola, grade seven student and this year's top reader says winning the challenge versus Herons Crossing K-8 School in Airdrie was great but wasn't necessarily the goal.

"I was very happy to see other kids in the community be inspired by reading, it makes me feel a lot better because I'm a book nerd and so it makes me really happy to see our school is part of a reading community and that we are inspired by reading."

Tanzola was just excited about participating.

"My first goal was to get a thousand minutes, blew that away in the first few days, which I couldn't even believe and my goal was to read only one book, instead, I read three and I made it to 10,000 minutes by the end of the month"

Tara Sly, assistant principal, couldn't be more impressed with her student's work ethic on Fireside School's initial Read-A-Thon.

"That love of reading is a fundamental goal we have at the school." 

The students are looking forward to next year's challenge.