PORTSMOUTH, Va. — It may have been just another Tuesday all around Hampton Roads, but at Hodges Manor Elementary School in Portsmouth, it was “Dog Man Day."
The school celebrated the book series by author Dav Pilkey. Hodges Manor Assistant Principal Dennis Chalk says it’s a book series that's popular in their library.
“As soon as it comes in, it goes back out,” Chalk said. “The waiting list looked like about 15 kids long.”
But on Tuesday, April 4, the waiting was over.
All first through sixth-grade students at Hodges Manor got a free copy of “Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under The Sea.”
“I was excited,” fifth-grader Lyric Spencer said.
“You could hear the elation down the hallway,” Chalk added.
This all comes after a book fair in February when Hodges Manor students each got to pick up five free books.
This was made possible by the money raised by Hampton Roads residents and employees at WTKR/WGNT, thanks to News 3's "If You Give a Child a Book…” campaign and the Scripps Howard Fund.
“It was the first time we got stuff for free at a book fair,” fifth-grader Mason Linkous said about the February event.
Pilkey’s book is also the millionth book to be distributed in the campaign to help out kids in Hampton Roads and across the country.
“For some kids, the parents just don’t have the means to buy books from the book fair. Sometimes, their only opportunity is to check out. Then, you come in and say, 'here’s five free books,'” Chalk said. “You’re putting a book in a kid’s hands [who] otherwise would not have the opportunity to have it.”
Chalk said he and others are thankful for the opportunity and the impact the campaign has had on their school and others nationwide for the last seven years.
“It just shows how important community partners are, like WTKR, and your campaign to continue [raising] funds and [putting] books in kids’ hands,” Chalk said. “It means there’s a lot of kids reading on their own.”
All first through sixth-grade students at partner schools across the U.S. are getting a copy of the millionth book, thanks to a donation by Pilkey.
As for Hodges Manor, “Dog Man Day” will be a day to remember for the 2022-2023 school year.
