About the kids

The Phillies honored 10 elementary-school students in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey last month for their participation in the Phillie Phanatic About Reading program.

They included Avi, a fourth-grader from Horace Mann Elementary School, one of five students named the most improved in the program. (The school district withheld her last name.)

Avi was nominated by her teacher, Chelsea Monahan, who first heard about the program last year from the school’s literacy learning coach.

“I nominated Avi as most-improved reader based on the fact that her fluency has improved, she tries really hard and her effort is always 110%,” Monahan said. “Her scores have gone up significantly since September. She’s really just putting in the work, doing her best. Trying her hardest. And really succeeding through her effort.”

The reading program goes back to at least 2007. Once teachers register, they get pencils, posters, books and logs for students to track their reading hours. Monahan – who has taught in the district for nine years – explained that the program enhances her effort to encourage young readers.

“It was a great incentive for them to read,” she said. “I mean, who doesn’t want the Phanatic and the Phillies and the poster in the classroom … They (students) were excited to fill out their reading logs every month. I have class incentives where they earn coupons to sit around the room and sit with a friend.

“I try to make reading as much fun as possible, and I think that the Phillies program really helps that.”

Avi was one of more than 140,000 tri-state students nominated; four other students from New Jersey also won, including one from Fountain Woods Elementary School in Burlington and another from Holy Angels Catholic School in Woodbury.

Monahan acknowledged that she never expected Avi to win.

“Like I said, there was 146,000 kids that were in the program this year,” she noted. “What are the chances of one of my students winning? Like it was so crazy, I was jumping up and down, so excited for her. For her to have her moment.

“It’s not even about me, it’s about the kids. And so I was just super excited that she was chosen.”

Avi was equally excited, in her own shy way.

“So although I could tell that she was extremely excited, it came out in a different way,” Monahan pointed out. “Like the smile on her face was just huge. She said, ‘Can I tell my mom?’ She’s more of a reserved type of person, so it wasn’t like she was jumping up and down. But … I could tell that she was excited …

“I could tell from the look on her face that she was just kind of having her moment.”

This is the second year that Monahan has nominated students for the Phanatic program. She got comped tickets to the Phillies May 24 game and joined the reading students through the third-base tunnel at Citizens Bank Park. The students also took a photo with the team mascot before the national anthem.