FULLERTON : Wedges Fly in One for the Books

In the parking lot of Eastside Christian School, the pupils of Tracy Gonzalez’s fifth-grade class and their “pizza athlete,” a college football player, huddled around the box of pizzas for some last-minute instruction.

“Get ready!” the pupils shouted at Robert Bedford, a tight end at Cal State Fullerton, wearing a mesh jersey numbered 83.

He had assumed a speed-eating crouch: the first slice of pizza drawn to his mouth, a cup of soda in arm’s reach and about a dozen more slices scattered in a cardboard box.

The pupils at Eastside had read a total of 10,000 books during eight weeks this school year for the Reading Incentive Program.

Their reward: a Friday afternoon pizza-eating contest to declare a winner among 18 school classes.

By reading books, each class earned precious minutes for their pizza-athlete. The winning class would be determined by the number of slices eaten.

When the signal came to start the contest, Gonzalez’s pupils started jumping up and down wildly. “Shove it in your mouth!” they yelled as Bedford hiked the first bite into his mouth.

As Bedford labored to chew the bites down, the pupils jumped higher and shouted louder and began chanting, “Go Robert!”

With time winding down, the tight end picked up his third slice while swallowing the second. His forehead had broken into sweat, his eyes were a little bloodshot--and he began to laugh.

Seconds later, the third piece was gone and time was up. The pupils snatched the remaining pieces that Bedford hadn’t eaten.

“I knew I didn’t have much time,” Bedford said afterward. “Their encouragement helped, but they made me laugh.”

The pizza-eating time earned by the five winning classes allowed their athletes to consume six pieces each.

“This is crazy out here,” joked Debbie Clever, the librarian who created the school’s Reading Incentive Program four years ago.

“We want them to establish reading as a habit. For any occupation they go into, reading will be important, but for now we just try to make it fun.”

In Clever’s library, pupils are given powerful incentive to read. Besides the pizza contest, they get a special award for using a public library card.

They can earn Bookworm Bucks, which can be redeemed for toys, food at local restaurants or even Angels baseball tickets.

“You have to read a whole lot of books to have fun here,” fifth-grader Jim Campbell said.

He said his favorite book is “The Black Stallion.” When he finished he had enough points to buy a rubber ball and two stickers.