GRANDVILLE, Mich. — Reading is an important part of school, and educators are always looking for ways to encourage their students to hit the books.
Students at Cummings Elementary were surprised this week, when their principal rewarded their reading efforts by saying "lets-a go" to the Super Mario Bros. Movie.
It all began in the school's library.
"We have a readathon every year," says Principal David Martini. "And we had told the kids if we matched our goal or exceeded our goal, we would do something special for the whole school."
And when the students easily surpassed their goal of $25,000, reaching $28,000 raised for the school, Martini knew they had to do something special.
"And this year, it happened to be our theme was Mario Kart," he says. "So we had all the teachers names on different Mario characters and their karts."
So when he realized the Mario movie was in theaters, timing couldn't have been better.
"I thought, wow, wouldn't this be kind of cool to marry the two and let's go, full school, to the movies," says Martini.
More than 500 students, staff and parents all at the same theater.
The kids couldn't believe it.
"There's some that have never stepped foot in a theater, so they were so excited to go," says Martini.
Some kids wore Mario hats and shirts while enjoying their popcorn, others worked on their impressions of the character, and all had a great time at the movies.
Martini says he's proud to reward his students for a job well done in class, and his students appreciate him too.
"Anything to promote reading is what we're here for," he says.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.