What happens when 294 elementary students meet your challenge to read 100 million words and be tested on them? You eat fried worms, of course.

That's just what Conestoga Elementary School Principal Ryan Lindquist did Wednesday amid far more pomp, circumstance and dinnertime formality than any battered and fried earthworm should muster.

He ate five worms, to be exact. So did Conestoga fifth-grader Jerad Leifeld and second-grade teacher Sharon Heneger, whose worm-dining years actually began as a child.

It all began in August when librarian Jan Madsen came across a note she had written to herself and tucked in her top desk drawer the year before.

It said: "100 million words."

It was her reading goal for the 2004-05 school year. The year before Conestoga students had tallied 51 million words as part of the Reading Renaissance Accelerated Reading program.

The program offers individualized guided reading, meaning children are given books to read at their reading level and must pass a test on their understanding of the words before moving up to the next level.

While the company that publishes the Accelerated Reading Program awards points for scores of 60 percent or more, Conestoga Elementary requires students to score 85 percent or above.

Lindquist and Madsen issued the challenge last fall, promising that if it were met Lindquist would do something crazy.

Just what was not determined until Madsen remembered Thomas Rockwell's book "How to Eat Fried Worms."

Just the title left a bad taste in her mouth, but Lindquist was game.

As word spread across Murray, Nehawka, Lake Waconda, Bear Lake and Union, parents, grandparents and even residents without elementary-age kids joined in the reading challenge.

Every Friday, the school opened 35 minutes early for "Rise ‘N Read" in which children ate breakfast and spent the rest of their time reading. About 87 percent of the school's students regularly participated, Madsen said.

Three weeks ago — just shy of the 100 million word mark, Lindquist held his Friday morning assembly.

To get everybody's hearts and stomachs into the spirit, staff served chocolate-covered grasshoppers, slugs, meal worms, grubs and cockroaches.

Kids used the coupons they earned from reading to buy the chocolate-covered bug of their choosing.

Full of pre-worm bravado on Wednesday, Lindquist boasted he had eaten a slug and grub that morning three weeks ago.

"So we ‘Fear Factored' a lot of it out," he said before sitting down at a small table set with fine china and glass goblets in front of throngs of children in the bleachers.

But 11-year-old Jerad wasn't so sure. He had taste-tested his first worm — raw and "right out of the dirt" — at that assembly.

It was not good, he said.

Heneger figured worms must be a whole lot better battered and fried, and Gov. Dave Heineman and Sen. Roger Wehrbein of Plattsmouth came in to do the cooking.

Two-year-old James Parriott V walked into the roaring gymnasium carrying a silver platter with 18 squirming earthworms.

After the worms were battered and fried by the visiting dignitaries, Conestoga Superintendent Mark Sievering helped serve five to each diner.

"Pardon me, sir," Lindquist said. "Do you have any Grey Poupon?"

Sievering — decked out in a tuxedo with tails — pulled a jar from his pocket.

There was also ketchup, teriyaki sauce, garlic herb marinade, strawberry and chocolate ice cream toppings and sprinkles, but Lindquist stuck to his Grey Poupon and teriyaki sauce.

"But really what helped was the glass of water," he said.

And a surprise dessert of gummy worms afterward.

So was it worth it?

The school's achievement test scores provide the answer, Lindquist said. The results arrived late Tuesday afternoon.

"Our third-graders are reading on average at the sixth-grade level," Lindquist said. "Our fourth-graders are reading on average at the seventh-grade level. And our fifth-graders are reading on average at the eighth-grade plus a half year level.

"That is awesome," he said.

For those of you wondering if worms taste like chicken, Lindquist can offer an emphatic "no."

"I can't really describe what they taste like."

Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.