Read. Fundraise. Repeat! Our 2025 Read-a-thon Recap
- bcemarketing
- Feb 8
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 12
A new look, more prizes, and special events brought new energy to this year's Read-a-thon week, and boosted fundraising 10 percent over last year!
BCE's annual Read-a-thon is a favorite fundraising event that gets kids excited to read, while bringing in much needed support for the annual grant. "I like participating in the Read-a-thon because it's a great way to raise money for our schools for things like PE and music, which are privileges we get to enjoy,” said Kaya Shah, a fifth-grade student at McKinley Elementary.
Teachers, students, parents, friends and community rally to support a shared love of reading and books. From the Burlingame Library kick-off with free books, to Zoom story time, to silent reading hot cocoa parties, our Burlingame students were prepared and logged almost 550,000 minutes read over the course of the five day event. "We love this annual event and how easily everyone from kindergarteners to eighth graders can participate and contribute to raising much needed dollars for our school district," said BCE's VP of Events Cindy Wu.
The Read-a-thon in numbers:
1,592 readers
1,955 donors
937 fundraisers
and 548,861 minutes read!
Together we raised over $207,500!
Thanks to our long time Read-a-thon Title Sponsor, Corey, Luzaich, de Ghetaldi & Riddle LLP for supporting Burlingame students!
Amanda Riddle, BIS and Lincoln mom and a partner at Corey, Luzaich, de Ghetaldi & Riddle, said, "We are proud to be the title sponsor of the BCE Read-a-thon. Promoting reading in our community is so important and we're so inspired to see our young readers participating in this program, both reading and learning how to fundraise. The funds raised this week will pay for professional development, smaller class sizes, music programs, and additional teachers." BCE is grateful to all of our Read-a-thon sponsors and event partners who helped to make the week a success.
“I love the Read-a-thon because it allows me to read more while fundraising to help support my school. I love how my family supports me during this time by donating. It makes me happy!”
—Jayden Yeung
(third grader at McKinley)
A Week of Reading Events
With the support of our amazing community partners, this year’s Read-a-thon included a series of events to help students celebrate reading with friends and family. There was something for everyone, including a Hot Chocolate and Silent Reading Party at Grupology, Burgers and Books nights all week at Maverick Jack’s, a zoom bedtime story read-aloud with author Karen Chan and Gloo Books, and BCE Boba Week at Lilikoi on Broadway. On top of all this, BIS students organized groups to visit their old elementary schools and read aloud and in small groups with younger students!
A New Look for an Beloved Tradition
This year, the Read-a-thon got a new theme and look inspired by our city’s beautiful trees. The school libraries created artistic trees that students decorated with leaves that included their own book recommendations. Each classroom also got a poster with a tree trunk, and students got to add a leaf for each day they participated in the Read-a-thon. The poster trees got lush and green quickly as students racked up those reading minutes!
Prizes Galore!
The Read-a-thon prizes get students excited about participating, so this year BCE added more prizes… a lot more! Almost 300 participants across Burlingame received prizes for reading and fundraising, including Beats headphones, extra recess, or gift cards to Maverick Jack’s, TopGolf, Gigglemugs.
BIS earned the spot as the top fundraising school, with Franklin coming in as a close second. “It was terrific to see both the BIS and Franklin communities really increase their enegagement in Read-a-thon since last year. The middle school students truly acted as leaders, not only reading and fundraising themselves, but also reaching out to the younger students to encourage them to get involved,” said BCE Executive Director Meredith Dunn. “It’s a really heartwarming part of this BCE tradition to see that students can continue to participate and enjoy it through all of the grades levels, and I know that kids look back at Read-a-thon with fond memories when they move on to high school.”
You can use the links below to see all of the prize winners at each school:
“We enjoy reading and tried to be the top readers in our classes. We love the read-a-thon because they have awesome prizes and the money we raise supports our school!” - Rylan Nathu (fifth grade at Lincoln) and Remy Nathu (third grade at Lincoln)
Reading Recs from the Pros
For the second straight year, BCE shared teacher, principal, and staff reading recommendations on social media. Characters come to life in the stories we read, so this year recommendations focused on favorite characters in literature, including picks for readers at all levels. BSD employees submitted reflections on the characters they most enjoyed reading about, and the book they star in that students could consider reading during the Read-a-thon (and beyond).
