CRANBERRY TWP — The competition left participants sprawled across the floor or draped across bean bags, folding chairs or pillows. Books and shoes littered the floor.

Many, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed, seemed oblivious to the outside world. Silence filled the room.

This wasn't the aftermath of some marathon or hot dog-eating contest. In fact, it wasn't the aftermath of anything at all. The Cranberry Public Library's Teen Read-a-thon was still very much in progress.

Organized by Rachael Troianos, teen services librarian, and staged from noon to 4 p.m. July 13 in the library's meeting room, the event drew 18 people willing to brave eye strain for a good cause.

On this Friday the 13th, the cause was VOICe of Butler County. Troianos said that for every page read during the four hours, 10 sponsors agreed to pay a certain sum per page.

Troianos said she got her readers and sponsors by putting up signs, a notice on the library's Facebook page and putting sponsorship sheets around the library and on its Website.

Readers logged in with Troianos with the time and page number of a book when they started and the time and page they finished on when they stopped.

“They are very serious, which I think is awesome,” said Troianos, who said she's had read-a-thons at the library before but usually, “there was no reading done at all. It was mainly a chat session.”

But this Friday the 13th proved unlucky for the sponsors, said Troianos the following Monday when she totaled up the results.

“There were 2,888 pages read, and I'm still contacting sponsors to see if they want to pay that money because that's a lot more pages than expected,” said Troianos. She attributed the large total to fast readers, in particular “one girl who read 600 pages” of Harry Potter in four hours.

So far, the read-a-thon has raised $637.68 for VOICe, said Troianos, with two sponsors still to be heard from.

“I think it was a great idea,” said Leslie Pallotta, Cranberry's library director. “I love that kids were wanting to do something for the greater community.”

During the read-a-thon, Sarah Hurst, 12, of Cranberry Township, was tackling “Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The First Collier” the ninth book of a series by Kathryn Lasky.

“I finished the eighth one today” she said of the books about the adventures of a band of owls.

“I'm always fascinated by birds. I like birds of prey like owls. There's a little bit of suspense. The chapters have names which kind of tells you what it's about,” said Sarah.

“I've read the prologue. If I can read fast enough I should get to chapter four, five or six, somewhere in there. I don't know how many pages that will be,” she added.

Martin Majewski, 17, of Cranberry Township, was pretty certain he could knock off 300 pages of “Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony” by Eoin Colfer.

“It's great. I read that series in middle school and early high school. It's an interesting story, so far,” said Martin.

“I've been doing a lot of reading this summer. I typically read quickly, and I'm used to reading stuff for my AP English class like Shakespeare, so this is a little easier than Shakespeare,” he said.

Jenny Lynskey, 15, of Cranberry Township, was doing a two-hour stint at the read-a-thon. She was sampling “Frozen” by Robin Wasserman

“I just started it basically. It's about a girl named Lia who dies and is turned into a skinner, a robot who thinks it's human. I'm only on page 45 so I can't tell you too much about it. It's really good so far,” Jenny said.

“I'm a pretty fast reader. I'm going to shoot for 100, hopefully more, cross my fingers,” she added.

Blair Underwood, 13, of Forward Township, was doing a three-hour segment and had gotten 40 pages into “The Icebound Land” by John Flannigan.

His sister, Shelby, 18, was reading “Someone Like You” by Sarah Dessen.

“It's basically two teenage girls who aren't happy with their lives and use each other for support,” she said. “I've done over a 100 pages, so maybe I can do 200.”

Jake Jerome, 19, of Cranberry Township, was tackling “Assassin's Quest” by Robin Hobb.

“It's pretty good, a fantasy book. I've gotten 60 pages in so far. I don't know where the story's going. It's like a 700-page book and I'm only like 60 pages so far,” said Jake, who hoped to finish 100 pages.

Troianos said when all the pledged money had been collected the library was either going to turn the money over to VOICe or use it to buy books from VOICe's wish list at Amazon.com.

“We have an art therapist on staff now. And she put together a list of books through Amazon.com. She uses these books to open up a conversation with a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault or both,” said Margie Wolfe, director of administrative services for VOICe.

Troianos said, “We're definitely going to do this again next year during Community Days to get even more sponsors.

She said the read-a-thon's date this year coinciding with Community Days was just a coincidence.