Throughout the day, Cheryl Myers works diligently in West’s new and improved  library. During study hall hours, Myers reminds students to focus on their academics, and she tries to persuade them to check-out books for one of the spirit barrel competitions. 

Myers’ job as a librarian at MCHS requires her to always think of creative ideas to motivate the students to read and set personal goals for themselves. The spirit barrel is MCHS’s newer approach of spreading school spirit through fun challenges and competitions between the grade levels.

 “The reading challenge is a competition to see which class [level] can read the most books,” Myers explained “but also to challenge students to read as much as they can between now and May 1st.” 

By adding a reading challenge to the spirit barrel, many students and staff members, are excited to free up some of their time to sit back, relax, and read. 

“We have 52 staff [members] involved in [the challenge],” Myers replies. “They’ve all set goals for themselves. Then, the books that they read will [be added] towards the class [level] that they support in the spirit barrel.”

Only one class can win the grand prize of the spirit barrel competition, so Myers wants to give out smaller prizes every month to people who have been participating in the reading challenge. 

“Every month I am going to randomly choose people who have read a book, and they’re going to get prizes like gift cards, an infinite library pass, books, things like that.”

Myers believes that rewarding students can be a great way to encourage teenagers to read, because a lot of students choose not to read books unless they are required to.

“When [students] come in for study hall we try and encourage them to check out books,” Myers said. “We do these kinds of competitions to try and get them to read.”

Students or staff interested in signing up for the book challenge must go to the library and pledge their goal on a slip of paper.