Reading Program Celebrates 1,000-Minute Achievers

We recently celebrated a major milestone in the Cooper Steel Reading Program, presenting 390 students across five elementary schools in Bedford County with a new pair of shoes after reaching their reading goal of 1,000 minutes in the first semester!

Students from East Side, Learning Way, Cartwright, Southside, and Eakin logged the minutes they spent reading, aiming to read 1,000 minutes to earn a brand-new pair of shoes. Altogether, these students read a combined total of more than 390,000 minutes, which was honored by a celebration at each school where Cooper Steel employees presented them with their new shoes. This is just the first shoe presentation, with more to come for students who reach their 1,000-minute goal throughout the rest of the year.

The reading program sets goals for students to read on a minute-read basis rather than the number of total books read, with the goal to encourage students to read more, keep improving, and reach their goals during the school year. Students can either read on their own or have someone read to them, then log minutes read in their reading log and have the adult who read to them or witnessed them reading initial the reading log to verify the minutes read.

The shoe presentation is one of four rewards for students who achieve their reading goals throughout the year. Other rewards include a new book for 500 minutes read, a trip to a holiday party for 2,000 minutes read by November, and an exciting mystery party for 4,000 minutes read. Over 500 students reached the holiday party goal and celebrated their achievements at Cooperville, hosted in the Cooper Steel Arena in December.

To date, the program has supported more than 1.5 million minutes read by students across the five Bedford County elementary schools, with 1,541 pairs of shoes being awarded—helping to instill the importance of commitment to personal growth, responsibility, and lifelong learning.