Pearson’s Corner E. S. got a visit from a celebrity of the four-legged variety last week, when Daisy, perhaps the most famous and most oft-kissed pig in the world showed up with her pal, Farmer (Paul) Minor.
Minor and Daisy were there to reward the students for surpassing their goal of 50,000 minutes of reading during the month of February.
In fact, the students almost quadrupled their reading goal, amassing more than 190,000 minutes of reading by the time they were through.
“I was surprised they beat their goal by such a wide margin,” said second grade teacher Michele Kaloski, who set the whole thing up. The deal was, if they made it, principal Steve Smith would have to kiss the pig.
Sound familiar?
Well, it is to thousands of students around the country, because Farmer Minor and Daisy have been spreading their special reading gospel for years now.
Minor and his wife, who live on a farm in Bristol, Conn., adopted Daisy after their kids grew up and left home.
To combat the empty nest syndrome, Mrs. Minor announced she wanted a pot-bellied pig to fill the void.
Once Daisy, the runt of the litter according to Minor, came home with the couple, one thing led to another.
“She’s not sleeping in the cellar,” Minor recalled his wife declaring. Now she sleeps under the covers on Minor’s shoulder, and takes showers with his wife.
Thirteen-year-old Daisy weighs in at 116 lbs., a lightweight even for pot bellied pigs.
But she’s undoubtedly the biggest pig reading advocate around, according to Minor.
The pair has toured the lower 48 states in 13 national tours.
“She has library cards from all over the United States,” said Minor in his talk to the Pearson’s Corner students, and a letter from First Lady Laura Bush, a former librarian herself. Minor said Daisy has the biggest collection of pig books he knows of.
Daisy reclined comfortably in her custom baby carriage, while Minor, clad in his trademark bib overalls told stories about their adventures together.
And, of course, he got the students to take the pledge to “Pig out on reading,”
Sticking their thumbs around the shoulder straps, Minor showed Kaloski, who sported her own set up bib overallls, how to “do the farmer.”
You just rock back and forth and wiggle your thumbs. That’s how it’s done.
“Mr. Smith was a great sport and didn’t stop smiling throughout the program,” said Kolaski.
Kaloski said she was pleased that the kids had done so well with their reading challenge. Sue Adam’s third grade class was the most successful, reading more than 16,000 minutes. In addition to seeing their principal kiss Daisy, a number of other teachers were encouraged to smooch the critter too.
Oh, and the winning classes in each grade level won an ice cream party as an added benefit.
Kaloski, who is working on a Library Media Specialist program through Longwood University, said she hoped the reading promotion would stick with the students into the future.
Ken Odor
Alex Countiss (left), Zachary Habron and Claire Gurtler of Beth Ramey’s third grade class make sure principal Smith holds his kiss the required five seconds.
