READING REWARDS

ICY WAKEUP – Plains Elementary School Principal Jim Holland takes his first chilly dunk of the day, complements of Skip Privett of the fifth grade and Title 1 teacher Gena Ferland. Superintendent Thom Chisholm (right) was next in the tank. Holland kept dry as the first seven students from kindergarten through sixth grade tossed a softball at the release lever some 10 feet away, but none of them caused a dip in the tank. After he was dunked by Privett and Ferlan, kids' names were drawn. This time, they used a basketball for more success against the principal, Chisholm and Ryon Nolan, who was hired as the new Plains High School principal and drove from Deer Lodge to volunteer for the dunk last Thursday at the school. Holland volunteered for the dunking tank if the students as a whole reached 3,500 points in the Love to Read Program. Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District Chief James Russell filled the tank with about 400 gallons of water that afternoon, but minutes prior to the event, school staffers Rheanna Fultz and Kati Mitchell put four bags of ice in the tank.