THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606140205
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Eric Feber
LENGTH: 84 lines
``We will do anything to get our children immersed in literature,'' said Liz S. Stublen, principal of Butts Road Primary School.
She made good on that statement last week.
Wearing bib overalls and big straw hats, she and her assistant principal, Calvin K. Hankins Sr., kissed not one but two pigs.
The event took place June 7 at an outdoor assembly in front of the school's student body, faculty, staff, administrators, parents, family members and friends.
The idea was the brainchild of the school's media specialist Corrine Andrews.
Second-grade students were invited to read books then take tests on computers about what they read. For every test they passed the students earned points.
The students went crazy over the idea, Andrews said. During the first month the second-graders earned more than 680 points.
Making good on her promise to ``do anything'' to get her kids to read, Stublen said she would kiss a pig if the school could accumulate a certain number of points.
That's all it took. The kids took to the books like bees to flowers.
``Our students have been reading so much here lately that we can't keep the books on the shelf,'' Andrews said.
Soon students were earning so many points, the school started the 10, 20 or 30 point club, each time a student earned an increment of 10 points. Each student who earned 10 points received a ribbon and prizes and had his or her photo on a special display wall in the school called ``The Wall of Fame.''
``The response was overwhelming,'' Stublen said.
Needless to say, the students read and read, amassing huge totals of points. Now it was time for Stublen and Hankins to pucker up.
Tom Freeman with Gum Tree Farms offered the loan of his 300-pound porker, Mary, who was named by students at Portlock Elementary School. But on the day of kisses, Freeman was having trouble getting Mary into his flatbed truck. Desperate for a pig to kiss, Stublen and Andrews called local 4-H leaders, who put them in touch with Cheryl Thomson.
Thomson gladly loaned the school her pet, a small potbellied porker named Doris Louise, who arrived at the school attached to a leash and proudly walked among the fascinated students.
But soon Freeman arrived with Mary. So lucky Stublen and Hankins got to kiss two pigs instead of one.
``We even put on hot pink lipstick so when we kissed the pigs it would leave lip prints,'' Stublen said. ``I think the children enjoyed seeing Mr. Hankins in lipstick over anything else.''
After the smooching was over, the children even paraded by Doris' truck to make sure they could spot the hot pink lip prints.
So how was it to kiss a pig?
``It was like kissing someone with a beard, they were bristly,'' Stublen said. ``And the potbellied pig even tried to kiss Mr. Hankins back.'' Award-winning cat
Congratulate McFred, the house cat of Judy Kerr, owner of Great Bridge Books.
It seems this black-and-white former stray is an award winner in Kerr's neighborhood of Wilson Heights.
McFred, who originally hails from Fredericksburg, used to live at Kerr's popular book store on Battlefield Boulevard. But due to our last very cold winter, Kerr decided to let the cat live at home.
``He used to live at the store, but now he enjoys sleeping on people's beds and sitting in laps,'' Kerr said.
Soon McFred was enjoying the routine of the rest of the eight cats residing in the neighborhood, namely bringing home small ``presents'' in the form of live squirrels, rabbits, birds and mice on the doorsteps of the Kerr, Gendell and Bush households. But snakes were their specialty.
Every year the Wilson Heights cats offer rewards to their host families by bringing home live garter, green, hognose, king and black snakes.
Because of this habit, each year now the three neighboring families offer an award for the cat that brings home the first snake of the season.
``It's a plastic blow-up snake, and the cat that brings home the first one of the spring/summer season gets his name printed on it,'' Kerr said.
McFred, true to his feline instincts, captured the spring 1996 award by hauling in a live garter snake.
An end-of-the season award is also given to the cat that brings in the last snake of the season. Kerr said McFred is training hard to bring home that award as well.
``He's out there, like the rest of the neighborhood cats, chasing flies and beetles,'' she said. by CNB