Photos: Seussical End To Flint Hill Readathon

Would you, could you, in Vienna, find green eggs and ham and Sam-I-am?

On Friday, the icons— and Cindy Lou Who, too— filled the halls of Flint Hill Elementary School in a parade celebrating the end of its Second Annual Read-A-Thon, during which students read a total of 240,620 minutes — the equivalent of five and a half months.

The celebration was planned for national Read Across America Day, a long-running effort by the National Education Association to encourage reading and literacy among people of all ages. An estimated 45 million students, parents and educators participate in the initiative each year, according to the NEA. It's sometimes known as "Dr. Seuss Day" — Friday marks the author's 108th birthday.

"If you can't read, it's going to make it difficult to learn anything and we want our students to be lifelong learners," said Assistant Principal Suzi Powell, who dressed up as the Cat in the Hat for the parade.

In Flint Hill's second read-a-thon, which ran for two and a half weeks, students were told to keep track of the minutes they read in a reading log and to collect pledges from friends, families and neighbors who wanted to support their challenge.

Together, the kindergarten through sixth graders read 240,620 minutes over 16 days — a jump of more than 50,000 minutes over last year's logged reading time. Four hundred of the school's 694 students participated, raising $16,450 through their pledges.

"It’s clear that reading must be near and dear to people's hearts," Powell said of the fundraising feat.

The costumes ranged from Cats in the Hat and Things 1, 2, 3 and 4, to Sam-I-Am, Cindy Lou Who and the Lorax. Some students recreated green eggs and ham with construction paper or play dough.

One student went the extra mile for the effort: on their plate, as they marched down the hallway, were real green eggs and ham.

For photos from the event, click through the gallery in the media player above.