TO THE EDITOR:

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to all involved who helped our recent FRED (Fathers Reading Every Day) events be so successful. It truly was an expression of community support to the children in our school.

I wish to especially thank the following: Rush City Lions -- for contributing all of the food for both events; Rush City Fire Fighters -- for grilling hot dogs for over 400 people; Holiday Station -- for contributing water for our second event; T. J. Kooly's -- for offering a special rate on their pizzas for the second event; Mr. Erdman -- for leading the father group; Ms. Goldenstein, Ms. Sweeney, Mrs. Moulton, Mrs. Swanson -- for helping with the presentations; to countless staff members -- for helping at the events and helping to promote this activity to their students; and especially, to the dads -- for giving of their time to talk about reading with their kids.

Personally, I have been a teacher or administrator in six different school districts and I have never witnessed such an outpouring of support for children and their education as was evident at the FRED events. The children of Rush City are extremely fortunate.

Melody Tenhoff
Elementary Principal