Photo by Ddeb Gau As part of a kickoff celebration for True Light Christian School’s Reading Month, students split up into teams for group reading on Friday morning. Students across grade levels listened as Josiah Sternke read to their team. Each team had the goal of reading the most minutes by the end of this month.

MARSHALL — Students were getting hyped up at an assembly at True Light Christian School on Friday morning. They cheered as principal Zach Schubert announced “Let’s get ready for reading!”

Students dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the book “The Cat in the Hat” ran through the assembly, giving everyone high-fives.

The excitement was part of the kickoff for the school’s annual Reading Month event. As a way to encourage students to read, True Light holds activities throughout the month of March. The theme is different every year.

This year, Schubert told students, “We are going to be traveling around the world for Reading Month.”

Students were split up into teams, with the goal of reading for the most minutes by the end of the month. Each minute of reading counted as one mile on a virtual race around the world. Minutes spent reading the Bible counted for double the miles, Schubert said.

The excitement stayed as students left with their teams to create “passports” to check off reading milestones. Hannah Meier’s team of students stopped in front of a world map in the school hallway, with the Reading Month tour route marked on it. Their first goal was Canada, at 500 miles from Marshall. After that came Greenland, 3,000 miles from Marshall.

“I think we can make it to both Canada and Greenland,” one student said.

Schubert said Reading Month challenges and activities are a little different every year. “Sometimes it’s more individual, sometimes it’s team-based,” he said. Either way, students have a lot of fun with it. “We try and make sure the kids understand it’s a big deal,” Schubert said.