Last Friday marked the second annual Season’s Readings event at Townsend Harris, a part of the THHS Reading Initiative organized by Humanities teacher and Classic Advisor Brian Sweeney and Librarian Arlene Laverde. Students participated in four bands of holiday-themed reading followed by a variety of after-school events ranging from a market of different cultural holiday treats presented by Festival of Nations (FON) groups to a gingerbread house-building competition.
During the school day, students went to the auditorium during bands one and four to watch live performances of holiday stories hosted by The Nightingale Theater Company. Classes who did not attend the performance listened to their teachers read holiday stories in their classrooms. English teacher Ryan Dunbar, who helped run the staged readings in the auditorium, said, “I think [it] went really well. Anytime you can get the student body united around just a day of reading, I think that’s a win for everyone.”
Band two was designated for independent reading, whether it was holiday-themed or not. Students spent this time reading a book they brought to school or got from the library. “This reading event was very fun and helped me open up to reading since I’m usually not a huge reader,” said freshman Neo Mun.
English teacher Katherine Lipinski said, “I think it’s always good to have a fun little break in our schedules and get to spend a little more time as a community reading together.”
Students then spent third band exploring different parts of the world by reading holiday folktales from different cultures. Leaders of FON each prepared a reading delving into a traditional story unique to their culture.
Ms. Laverde said she hoped that students enjoyed “all the rich stories about different cultures, because we do FON every year and this is a great way to kick off FON season.”
“I really liked this event because I’m a huge reader and loved being able to read freely for almost four bands. The Nightingale Theater Production did an amazing job and gave us an opportunity to take a break from all the academic stuff,” said freshman Lillian Parrella.
After the school day concluded, the Season’s Readings Holiday Party began. Students were able to attend the Holiday Market in the lobby, where they could enjoy the various foods offered by different FON groups while also helping them fundraise for their upcoming performances. Clubs like the Steel Hawks, Freshman Grade Leaders, and Anime Club also had holiday treats, drinks, and trinkets available.
Ms. Laverde said that she and Mr. Sweeney chose to move activities like this one after school, so that “if you didn’t want to do the artsy stuff, you could go home, but you still got to do the reading portion during the day.”
“I was able to experience so many cultures and all the different foods here,” freshman Harrison Zhu said. “I was able to see, physically, how diverse we are here at Townsend.”
Senior Emmett Buckman, the head of Anime Club, said, “Originally, I came to Season’s Readings just so we could get a bit more money since Anime Club is not as popular as I think people would have expected it to be. I think it would be nice to spread more awareness about the importance of the club community.”
After getting seasonal treats, students were able to show off their teamwork and architecture skills in The Phoenix Gingerbread House Building Competition. Students from all grade levels were given the opportunity to work together to build a gingerbread house in the library for a cost of eight dollars per team.
Senior and Editor-in-Chief of The Phoenix, Quinnlan Burke, said, “I wanted to organize this event because we wanted to do something fun, engaging, and festive for the holidays for the students to enjoy. When we heard about Season’s Readings going on at the same time, we decided to ask Mr. Sweeney and he [agreed].”
Sophomore Aiden Yildes said his experience decorating gingerbread houses was very fun. “We had many ideas in our head of what we were trying to make, but it didn’t play out as well as we expected,” he said. “We had fun either way, so this has been a really fun experience. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Cookie Decorating and Ornament Making were also available in the cafeteria until the end of the Holiday Party. “I found the cookie decorating really fun, and there were a lot of cool markers for both the cookies and ornaments. I also enjoyed my friends getting creative with their ornaments, and overall had a really good time,” said senior Parisa Alam.
While students enjoyed the different activities happening around the school, they also had the option to watch Home Alone in the auditorium. This activity did not have as high of a turnout as others offered at the Holiday Party, as many students found themselves spending most of their time engaging in other events.
Ms. Laverde said that the main reason for having these Reading Initiative events is to allow students “to have a good time as well as read, especially during the holiday season.”
