At the end of the last grading period, Tift County students had rolled up a
total of 1,799,000 Accelerated Reader points. The push is on to earn another
201,000 points before the end of the year, Tift County Foundation for
Educational Excellence Executive Director Mike Brumby said Friday.

     “If we really rev it up, there’s a chance we can make it,” Brumby said. “If
we read like only Tifton can read, we can do this before Dec. 31.”

     Under the Accelerated Reader program, readers earn points by taking tests
over books they have read. The more questions the readers answers correctly,
the more points he or she receives.

     The TCFEE will kick off its annual summer program at noon Tuesday, June 3, at
the its Reading Center on Tift Avenue (across from the Charles A. Kent
Administrative Building). Both children and adults may take tests at the
center, Brumby said.

     “The kids, through the schools, have been carrying the major part of the load
(of earning points),” said Brumby. “But it will take the rest of us reading,
the adult population, to make the goal.”

     As a part of “RCW II,” the foundation is working to get the number of local
“Book Nooks” to 50 by the end of the year. The Book Nooks, quiet spots at
area businesses set up with books and a comfortable place to sit, had their
beginnings after a tourist passing through asked why the Reading Capital of
the World didn’t have a place for her to sit and read. So far, about 30
businesses and service agencies have installed a Book Nook.