Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., and MetLife Foundation have named Sabin Elementary School the Colorado large site state champion of Read With Me: The 2004 RIF Community Reading Challenge, presented by MetLife Foundation.

The 650 children and hundreds of community volunteers at this site earned the distinction from among more than 1,200 sites and 350,000 children nationwide that pledged to participate in the national reading motivation competition.

"We are so pleased to see the tremendous response from children across the country to the Community Reading Challenge, a project made possible through the generous support of MetLife Foundation," said Carol H. Rasco, RIF president and CEL. "All our winners represent the finest examples of how educators, parents and community members can work together to motivate children to develop a life-long enjoyment of reading."

"RIF and MetLife Foundation have a long history of challenging children to read more books," said Sibyl Jacobson, President and CEO, MetLife Foundation. "We are delighted that this year so many families and communities joined the challenge and supported young readers in every corner of the country. Congratulations to the hundreds of thousands of children who participated in Read With Me and the volunteers who helped them achieve their goals."

Read With Me: The Community Reading Challenge is a two-week program to engage family members and communities across the country in motivating children to read. Children at participating RIF sites and community members take part in reading activities with the hopes of being honored as state or national reading champions.

During Sabin's challenge dates, January 25 to February 7, Sabin recruited parents and community members to read with children and participate in reading activities including buddy reading with visiting Henry Middle School students, a RIF book distribution, and reading with students from Mullen High School. In addition 300 children met a personal challenge to complete literacy-related activities at home and to meet reading goals.

In April, RIF National announced two winners in each state, a large site and small site (serving less than 350 children) as well as large and small-site national champions. RIF and MetLife determined winners through a scoring system that factored the number of children at the site who met reading goals and completed bonus literacy-related activities and the number of family and community members who participated in the site's reading events.

As a state champion, Sabin will receive a $200 gift card to purchase books, a commemorative certificate and flag, a medal for each participating child and necessary materials to create a fun-filled awards ceremony.

Sabin Elementary School is located at 3050 S. Vrain St. The school’s telephone number is 303-936-3413.