Support Our Reading Rhinos!

The Washington Read-a-thon is NINE EPIC DAYS of reading: The 2025 Read-a-thon runs from Saturday, March 15th to Sunday, March 23rd!

This school-wide event is designed to improve skills and uncork a love of books through focused reading over a short duration, with a little old fashion competition sprinkled in! We spotlight the power of reading for NINE EPIC days by providing an opportunity for students and their families to focus on books and reading together.

Reading Goal

Our 2025 school-wide goal is to read a combined total of 250,000 minutes.

Fundraising Goal

We hope every student can raise at least $150 from their sponsors. Sponsors can include parents, grandparents, neighbors, parents’ Facebook Friends, piano teachers, and even students themselves!

The Read-a-thon is also a great fundraiser for Washington! A portion of the funds raised will go directly to each of our amazing teachers for supplies, field trips, books, and other classroom needs. The remaining funds go into the PTA general fund, which pays for school-wide needs like Coach Don, counseling services, restorative justice, field trips, assemblies, school-wide events and more!

How does it work?

  1. Students ask sponsors to support their reading by pledging a fixed $ amount OR per minute amount.

  2. From Saturday, March 15th through Sunday, March 23rd students and families READ, READ, READ!

  3. Students track time spent reading (or being read to or listening to an audiobook) on their reading log.

  4. Students collect their pledges.

  5. Pledges and the reading log/pledge envelope are returned to teachers OR email your child’s name, teacher, and the total number of minutes to the PTA Fundraising Leader and mail the checks to school at 2300 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.

How to donate?

  • Cash: We’ll take it!

  • Checks: Make checks payable to: Washington PTA. Washington PTA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization (tax ID # is 94-6174706).

  • Share donation request on social media: : Reach out to friends and family for donations by posting on your social media pages using the link to our Read-a-thon page.

  • Online payment: https://app.99pledges.com/fund/washington239

What are the Prizes?

Most minutes read (student)

The top three students per grade who read the most minutes will win a gift card from a bookstore!

Most minutes read (classroom)

The class with the most minutes read wins a cookie or popsicle party.

Highest participation rate (classroom)

The class with the highest participation rate will celebrate with a special whole-class prize. (Participation = turning in reading logs--no fundraising required.) All classes with 100% participation will have a prize.

HOW CAN PARENTS & CAREGIVERS HELP?

  1. Help Set a Goal: Talk with your children about setting a goal for how many minutes they will read during the Read-a-Thon. This is a good time to motivate your readers to read more often, choose different kinds of books, and consider reading more challenging books.

  2. Make the Read-a-Thon Fun for the Whole Family: Make a poster where family members can write down their favorite books, host a family or friends book club, or plan an extra trip to the library. Check out the Read-a-thon Bingo (READO) for more inspiration.

  3. Remind Your Reader to Track Their Minutes: This is often the most difficult part!

Need the Read-a-thon Forms?

Download them here: Parent guide, Reading log.