Shay Lanise

Earlier today, at 9 am to be exact, I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl at the University of West Georgia. Hearing about this opportunity, I knew I had to participate because I'm an avid reader. The HRRB, in a competitive game format, gives students of grades 4-12 questions about the content of 20 Georgia Book Award Nominees each year. Students from different schools compete to test their knowledge of these selected books.

Created by the late Helen Ruffin in 1986, Mrs. Ruffin was a Library Media Specialist for DeKalb County. I'm thankful for the efforts Mrs. Ruffin saw for getting students excited about reading, and her legacy lives on. Today, the Georgia HRRB includes six geographic competition regions: North, East, West, Metro, Middle and South. Just in the past few years, over 600 schools throughout Georgia have held competitions at the local school district level.

My job for the reading bowl was to be a console judge for the high school participants. There was also a moderator and timekeeper in the room. My specific duty was to acknowledge the student who would ring their buzzer first, and to reset the buzzer each round. Luckily I was able to come prepared by watching the volunteer training video ( HRRB training ) DeKalb County provided on YouTube. This was a wonderful experience, and my recap slightly touches the surface of the fun I had. I highly recommend volunteering whenever it's near your city!

For more information about the reading bowl, visit : Dekalb County School District