Congratulations to the winning students of this year's Rebel Reading Challenge. They were recognized at the last regular season homegame of the men's basketball team.
Created by SuperPawn and UNLV Athletics as a community outreach initiative four years ago, the 30-day competition motivates students to read. It has evolved from a 16-school competition to include nearly 7,000 fourth- and fifth-graders from 35 schools this year.
First place went to Ms.Crawford's fourth-grade class at Reynaldo Martinez Elementary and Ms. Hill's fifth-grade class at Robert Lunt Elementary. They read 2,393,960 pages.
Mrs. Vidrios' fourth-grade class at Elaine Wynn Elementary and Ms. McNeil's fifth-grade class at Joseph E. Thiriot Elementary achieved second-place finishes.
These students, along with the top two readers from each participating school, earned tickets to the game among other prizes.
Jo Mackey Elementary was recognized as the top school for reading the most pages throughout the challenge and received a $500 grant from Superpawn to enhance its library.
Youth reading is a focus for the community outreach efforts of UNLV Athletics.