Color run fun

In effort to reward students who participated in the Sweetwater County Library's summer reading program, Monroe Elementary School hosted a color run to celebrate.

As children ran by Monroe Parent Teacher Organization members who were squirting color dust, some covered their faces, while others begged the PTO members to squirt as much color on them as possible. By the time the kids were done running around the color run course, they were covered with yellow, green, pink and purple colors.

Becky Iwen, Sweetwater County Library youth services librarian, said more than 120 students participated in the reading program and more than 700 minutes of reading was completed by those students. A lot of this information was logged by students using the library's new Beanstack app.

"We're using it throughout the year this year," Iwen said.

Iwen said three or four years ago, the library rewarded summer readers with a color run and the idea sort of stuck with Monroe.

Once the children were done running through all of the color squirting areas, Iwen gathered them up and read a book to them.

It was a book designed to help the children, especially those riding the bus, brush most of the color off of them before they went back into the school. Children laughed as they shook the color dust off of their clothes and out of their hair.

Those who participated in the color run were also asked to bring a towel to assist in taking the color dust off.

After the students were dusted off, they made their way to three tables filled with books.

Each child received a free book and snack thanks to their PTO. Iwen said it was well deserved since they had completed a lot more reading this summer.