Rodeo Dental Sponsors Olympic Reading Challenge in Mercedes

Who says the Dentist and Reading don’t mix? Sponsors Rodeo Dental, Lone Star National Bank and Local 23 KVEO News, paid a visit to Ruben Hijonosa Elementary at the end of February. Together, they celebrated over eighty second-grade students for reading hundreds of books and furthering their education. Like true Olympians, these reading rockstars took on the Olympic Reading Challenge in Mercedes. They hurdled over complex sentences, pole-vaulted across pages and pages of information, and came out on top!

Through reading, the students explored new worlds, broadened their creative map, and also had a blast learning! Three of Ruben Hijonosa’s hungriest readers gained some well-earned recognition and a medal for reading the most books in their class. Alvaro Silva the third won a gold Olympic Reader medal, Nicole Hernandez claimed a silver medal and Jocelyn Mendoza proudly earned a bronze medal. It was a fifth-grader, though, who read the most words – over one million – and plans to read many more after the challenge is over!

The school Principal was absolutely thrilled with what her students had accomplished and expressed she felt “blessed every day” to come and impact these incredible scholars. While the school band celebrated the students’ success with their rockin’ drumline, the students stood gathered together for a group picture, flashing bright confident smiles at the camera.