Brookfield Elementary School students raised more than $13,000 without having to go door-to-door or selling anything.

They simply had to read.

And, read they did – 139,675 minutes.

Hunter Hoskin alone read 6,754 minutes – more than 112 hours.

The students in grades kindergarten through four solicited sponsors, who paid them to read. The Read-A-Thon raised $13,275, shattering the goal of $9,000, and the amended goal of $12,000.

Barbara Simon

Barbara Simon

“You guys did excellent,” Barbara Simon, the elementary school secretary who coordinated the effort, told the students at an April 23 assembly. “It was all of you who worked with your moms and your dads and your grandmas and grandfathers.”

All told, 508 sponsors signed on.

The school receives 75 percent of the money raised – nearly $10,000 – with 15 percent going to students through incentives and the rest for licensing and processing fees.

The money will be used to buy Chromebook computers and fund field trips and other activities. To the kindergartners, who were sitting in the front of the auditorium, Simon said, “These are things you’re going to use when you’re all the way back there with the fourth grade.”

While the money is crucial, the most important part of the Read-A-Thon was the reading, she said.

“We read and we read and we read and we read some more,” Simon said.

After Hunter, the list of top readers was: La’Rie Williams, 4,183 minutes; Joshua Bentley, 3,904 minutes; David “Judah” DeJoy, 3,500 minutes; and Maci Phillips, 2,991 minutes.

The top money earner was kindergarten student Drew Darby, $745. By grade, the other big collectors were: Sammy Kasula, first-grade, $270; Alex Higbee, second-grade $450; EvinViconovic, third-grade, $425; and Isabella Dye, fourth-grade, $255.

The top classroom in terms of money raised was Jessica Zebroski’s kindergarten classroom, $1,565. That room was followed by Natalie Huda, Sherri Ondo, Jane Jones and Jill Micaletti.

Photo shows some of the top money earners, from left, Sammy Kasula, Alex Higbee, Evin Viconovic and Isabella Dye.