First grade classes looking for votes on decorated pumpkins displayed at Pizza Hut

Daniel Larlham Jr., Lebanon Daily News
·2 min read

Three first grade classes are looking for your vote this month to decide which class has the better decorated pumpkins.

In coordination with the Cumberland Street Pizza Hut, Southeast Elementary first grade students have set up decorated pumpkin displays for the BOOK IT! pumpkin decorating contest.

Pumpkins are designed based on books that the students have read in class.

Decorated pumpkins from the three first grade classes are displayed inside the Pizza Hut at 732 E Cumberland St.
Decorated pumpkins from the three first grade classes are displayed inside the Pizza Hut at 732 E Cumberland St.

BOOK IT! is a reading program put on by Pizza Hut that aims to encourage reading nationwide by offering kids free pizza for meeting reading goals.

Visitors are able to vote on their favorite display at the restaurant. At the end of the month, votes will be tallied and the winning team will receive a trophy.

"At the end (of the contest), I will present the classes, I'm going to try and get them all together inside Pizza Hut, if not I'm going to have to go to the school," Said Scott Lutz, general manager of the restaurant. "What I'm going to do is the winner gets a free pizza party, but they have to share it with all the losing classes, so everyone gets a pizza party. And then I have a trophy that I'm going to give to the winning class."

Lutz said part of what he's trying to do is engage the community a little bit more with the restaurant, and through that reaching out to educators as a way to promote both the BOOK IT! program and the store was a good way to start.

He held the store's first contest earlier last year around Easter as a trial run, and brought it back for October in a bigger way.

This is the second contest that general manager Scott Lutz has held at the store.
This is the second contest that general manager Scott Lutz has held at the store.

"Just seeing how happy these kids were. I had to go to the school and I did a little trophy presentation to the winner, and these kids were just so excited about this and getting the free pizza and participating. Yeah, I couldn't deny doing it a can."

Lutz said that he tried to run the contest between two different schools but wasn't able to get the other to participate due to time constraints. He hopes to eventually spread the contest around the whole community to every elementary school in the area.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Local Pizza Hut holds pumpkin decorating contest for first graders