Photos: Principal Gets Pelted With Whipped Cream, Shaving Cream

It was a messy day for Roanoke Avenue Elementary School Prinicipal Thomas Payton.

Payton got pelted last week with whipped cream, silly string, shaving cream, Kool Aid, strawberry sauce, bird seed, paper airplanes, noodles, marshmallows and water -- and he was blindfolded, to boot.

But it was all in the name of fun: The yearly event was the culmination of the Roanoke Reading Week celebration.

This year, Payton presented students with an and the promise that if they reached their reading goal, he'd walk the walk, blindfolded, and let them spray him or toss things at him.

The 370 kids met the challenge handily, reading 65,794 minutes in four days -- and had a great time pelting the principal as he walked around the periphery of a huge square of happy young readers and grinning staff members. 

After a reading week that began with a celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday via a Dr. Seuss Read Aloud and included Read a T-Shirt Day, Team Up and Read Day, Hats Off to Reading Day, Poem in Your Pocket Day, A Reading Roundabout, and a winter storm, the week concluded with a very “messy” Payton -- and kids who'd embraced reading.