Lily-Anne Small (left) and Bella Woodard, both kindergarten students at Guy E. Rowe Elementary in Norway, got to enjoy a morning at school with their families at the Donuts for Grownups breakfast and the spring brook fair. Last Friday marked the first school event in more than two years. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat

Lyly-Anne Small (left) and Bella Woodard, both kindergarten students at Guy E. Rowe Elementary in Norway, got to enjoy a morning at school with their families at the Donuts for Grownups breakfast and the spring book fair. Last Friday marked the first school event in more than two years. Nicole Carter / Advertiser DemocratNORWAY — Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway revived its annual student-parent breakfast last week, Donuts for Grownups, for the first time since 2019, with a whopping 1,500 people in attendance.

“We have a full house,” said Principal Douglas Kilmister, as kids led their parents between the cafeteria and the school gym, where a book fair was taking place. “There was no seating, which is pretty darn good.

“We have 410 students, and maybe over 1,000 parents here today. There have been a lot of people I’ve never met. A lot of dads were able to make it.”

“This is sort of our first big thing in two years, explained Holly Hill, who teaches first grade at Rowe. “We decided to do a fundraiser, too. Donors bought almost everything that we served here this morning.

“We knew where we haven’t been able to hold an event in two years it would probably be a big deal. We decided to stagger it so that not everyone would be arriving right at eight.”

Ruby Melhus, a first-grader at Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway, shows off the new books she got at the school’s spring breakfast and book fair. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat

The book fair was sponsored by Scholastics, which provided fiction and nonfiction books for all ages, from board and picture to chapter books. Normally held in the fall during parent-teacher conferences and in spring ahead of Mother’s Day, proceeds from the book sale go to Rowe’s Educators-Community-Home Organization.

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Hill’s students brought their collections of new books back to her first-grade classroom to get their first reads right away.

Mia Knightly had three Elephant and Piggie books from a young reader series by Mo Willems. Ruby Melhus, 7, was settling down with one of her new books, graphic novel Bunbun and Bonbon.

“The school was full of adults!” student Luke Gaudette declared, adding that he had had a cinnamon doughnut with his family at breakfast.

“Opening up the school for the first time in two and a half years, I think people were really anxious to come back and celebrate with their kiddos,” Hill said.

 

 

 

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