By Slim Smith
COLUMBUS – Students at Annunciation Catholic School have been wearing school uniforms for years. But not Friday.
“This is their treat for today,” school librarian Terri Doumit said Friday. “We’ll have a bigger celebration later this month.”
For the 203 students at the school – which serves children pre-K through eighth grade – there is reason to celebrate.

Annunciation school librarian Terri Doumit reads to students in the library. Doumit is the driving force behind a very successful summer reading program, which has resulted in three Scholastic Summer Reading Program awards in three years. (Photo by Katie Fenstermacher)

On Sept. 4, the school’s four-month summer reading program came to an end. When it was over, the students had logged 295,868 minutes of reading – breaking their own record and emerging as the top school in the state for the third consecutive year. The Scholastic Summer Reading program is operated throughout the U.S. and in many other countries. Annunciation finished in the top 2 percent, ranking 159th out of the 6,229 participation schools.
“We’re just thrilled,” said Doumit, who has been the school’s librarian for eight years and is the coordinator of the summer reading program.
Each year, shortly before the end of the school year, Doumit enters each student’s name in the summer reading program website and furnishes the student and parents with the child’s own user-name and password. During the program, students logged in to report how many minutes they read that day.
“It works out, on average, to about 15-to-20 minutes per day for each student,” Doumit said.
As much success as the school has had in this competition, Doumit said the program serves an even greater purpose.
“The bigger goal is to make sure our students have a passion and a love for reading,” she said. “That’s what I especially like about this reading program. The children get to choose exactly what they want to read. As the librarian, I don’t ever want to force them into any genre or category. We want to provide them with books they are interested in. That’s what creates that love of reading.”
Annunciation plans a more formal celebration later this month, when representatives from the program come to the school for an official presentation, Doumit said.
(Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch)