How One Librarian Fell in Love with the Challenge

Our friends at WWE received this email from Bambi Mansfield, director of the Crawford County Library System in Michigan, who signed up to be part of the WrestleMania 27 Reading Challenge:

As the library director of a small, rural community in Michigan, it is always a challenge to get kids reading, especially the youth. A young girl, age 10, emailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I would consider the
WrestleMania 27 Reading Challenge for 2010. I must admit, I was reluctant to get involved with it since my days of watching wrestling included
The Sheik, Andre and others. I did not want to appear old, or out of the ring, so to speak.

As a gesture to show cooperation, I reluctantly registered for the
WrestleMania 27 Reading Challenge. I truly thought this would be a small commitment of time, a young fan would be happy and I would provide one or two small programs for the youth to allow them to compete. This would be a simple thing, and I would never have to worry about it again. Boy, did I “
Hornswoggle” myself!

Within 48 hours of answering the initial email, I was overwhelmed with middle school boys and girls, as well as adults, who had heard that we were doing the Challenge! We have not even begun and already we are overwhelmed with the response. Because of the community reaction, we are taking this challenge further than we had originally intended! And guess who is the most inspired and excited? Me, the reluctant librarian! I have been diligently working on ideas and answering excited teens who are waiting patiently for October to arrive. We will be focusing on literacy for more than a month and will be able to “Knock out Illiteracy” by “Wrestling with a Good Book!” using the initial inspiration of WWE’s WrestleMania Reading Challenge and the Get R.E.A.L. program.

To read the full letter, visit the
WWE WrestleMania Reading Challenge website.

Want to be part of the Challenge?
Register today!