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Along the Iditarod Trail, dog sled mushers embrace the race through snow and ice – simultaneously, Club kids are racing along with them, just as diligently, through reading!

This year, the Lincoln Branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming participated in the online Iditaread. The Iditaread is a six-week reading contest where youth can compete against each other to see who can read the most books. Its goal is to get young readers back into books during the chilly winter months.

This “race” was especially wonderful because our members who participated in the Iditaread got to watch their names progress through the very same trail that the mushers were on! Jake L., age 6, loved reading along with the books on Storyline Online because, “I like how the pictures move during the story.”

Our Iditaread was set up just for reading this year- a skill that is met with challenges at our Club.  For every 10 minutes the members read, they moved to the next checkpoint.  If they reached the halfway point, they got a small prize. If they finished, they received the Finisher’s Certificate and earned a big prize.

It was incredibly heart-warming to see our members, some of whom do not like reading, ask if they could read. Christopher H., age 8, said, “I liked doing the Iditaread because I learned so much from all the books!”

Many of our members read up to 30-40 minutes each afternoon! They read traditional books, they read online, they read alone, and they read to each other.

Our Club read a total of 1,810 minutes over the six weeks and 14 Club members finished the Iditaread!  This was such a great experience and a huge success at our Club.