‘Peach Hill Posse’ Rounds Up Readers

If students at Peach Hill Elementary School collectively do 2 million minutes of reading this year, they will get to see Principal Marilyn Eubanks kiss a pig.

“I think we should get a really muddy pig,” said Sammie Mallory, 7, a second-grader at the school.

To reach that 2-million-minute goal, every student in the school will have to read at least 20 minutes a day. And if they succeed, it will be due in large part to the school’s “Peach Hill Posse” reading program, sponsored by the Moorpark Rotary Club.

To provide moral support, Rotary Club members “adopt” a classroom and each Rotarian reads aloud to his or her class for about 20 minutes each week.

“I’ve got seven grandkids and I know how important reading is and how they enjoy being read to,” said Darell Sneed, a Rotary Club member assigned to Peggy Weak’s second-grade class.

Sneed, 59, has been visiting Weak’s class almost weekly for 10 years to read, share cookies and listen. He was nervous at first, he said, but after attending a seminar on the importance of reading aloud to children he became an advocate.

Weak said her second-graders look forward to Sneed’s visits and the chance to show him what they are reading.

The Rotarians not only read aloud, they also raise between $2,000 and $3,000 each year for bandannas, badges and other cowboy-themed rewards that are given out for every 100 minutes read.

They hold a Peach Hill Posse carnival and a special ceremony where students are “sworn in” to the program and promise to read a specific number of books.

Over the past 10 years, Peach Hill has received several awards for the program, including the first Excellence in Education award given by the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce.