Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist
By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist issued a skydiving challenge to fellow educators who exceed reading goals among their students in an upcoming "Summer Reading Challenge" with the theme: "Dive Into A Book!".
In a letter to principals and school librarians, Gist said her challenge will be to see which schools can have the highest percentage of students complete all of their summer reading goals.
"To celebrate the successful completion of the challenge, I will skydive with the principal (or another volunteer, such as a librarian or teacher in the school) from the winning schools and we will invite the students to enjoy this exciting event," Gist wrote.
She laughed when asked by WPRO News whether she could have completed the "Dive Into A Book!" challenge by diving into a swimming pool instead of skydiving.
"Well, I suppose that would have been an option, but it might not have the same element of fun to the students as seeing their principal jump out of an airplane," Gist said. She has never tried skydiving.
"I'll be fun. We already heard from a number of different schools that want to participate, and we decided it would be a fun way to celebrate reading, and encourage reading over the summer," Gist added.
Gist said her extended treatment last year for a brain tumor, from which she has recovered, did not prompt her to develop a "bucket list" of things she wanted to accomplish; rather she had a long-standing "life list".
"When I came to the state there was some attention paid to some of the things I had done, breaking a world record (most kisses in a minute, a record that has since been shattered) and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I've also taken trapeze lessons and done a number of other kind of crazy things that all emerged from that life list. I actually didn't have skydiving on that list, but I added it," Gist said.
Gist said that winner of the competition will be announced in the fall, and the skydive will take place in September, from an airport either in Middletown or Lincoln.
