Program puts books, bikes in hands of elementary students

FARMINGTON – Students cheered and applauded their peers at Cascade Brook School and W.G. Mallett School Wednesday afternoon, as the participants of a popular reading program received new bikes courtesy of the local Maine Masonic Lodge.

“I have a feeling you know why we’re here …” Mallett Principal Tracy Williams said.

“Bikes for books!” a student exclaimed.

The Bikes for Books program operates throughout the state, with the statewide Masonic organization, the Grand Lodge of Maine, reimbursing local lodges to provide bicycles, helmets and t-shirts to participating elementary school students. In Farmington, representatives of Maine Masonic Lodge No. 20 organize the giveaway at Mallett and CBS. Other lodges coordinate the event at Cape Cod Hill School and the two Wilton schools: G.D. Cushing School and Academy Hill School.

The program got its start in Maine nine years ago when Mike Theriault proposed the idea to Euclid Masonic Lodge No. 194 in Madison, where he is a past master. Maine Lodge No. 20 of Farmington adopted the program in 2015 after witnessing the results in other programs.

Maine Masons will give out 1,500 bikes this year across the state, as part of the Bikes for Books program.

A girl and a boy in each grade from kindergarten through fifth grade is awarded a new bike at the conclusion of the reading program, which takes between six to eight weeks and typically folds into the school’s curriculum. The more books a student reads, the more entries into the drawing and the better his or her chance of winning a bicycle will be. Students have to write a sentence about the book on their raffle tickets.

“Learning to read is a gateway to many more things in life,” Mason Lodge No. 20’s Gerry Gilman told students.

Mallett students read 1,020 books for the program, while CBS students read 440 books approved by their homeroom teachers.

Of course, Gilman pointed out, not every student that participates, wins. This is considered another important lesson of the program: having compassion for both those receiving and not receiving bicycles.

Students at both schools rose to this challenge, applauding and shouting as their peers’ names were announced by librarians Amy Graham of CBS and Amanda Roberts of Mallett.

At CBS, students receiving bikes, helmets and a t-shirt included 3rd graders Elly Brackett and Rushi Taylor, 4th graders Trent Beaudoin and Mikayla Wilcox, and 5th graders Emily Maxim and Jacob St. Pierre. At Mallett School, 2nd grade students Cadence Sweetser and Gavin Tompkins, 1st graders Reese Nye and Dillon Gray, and kindergartners Madeleine Ernest-Rothert and Gavin Heath took home the bikes.

For more information regarding this program, you can contact the Grand Lodge of Maine at 207-843-1086 or check out their website at www.masoniccharitablefoundation.org.