For the second year, Ocean Lodge No. 142 is bringing the program to Wells Elementary School and will give away 50 bicycles along with helmets and T-shirts to a boy and girl from each of the school’s first through fourth grade classrooms.
Over a three-month period, students will read school approved books that interest them. Each book read will allow a student to enter a drawing for a bicycle. The more books read, the greater the chance of winning a bike when names are drawn in each classroom at the end of the program in early June.
Last year, more than 2,000 books were read by first- and second-grade students at Wells Elementary School and 18 students received a bike in time for summer.
The Wells Elementary program is being coordinated with Ocean Lodge by Literary Specialist Bonnie Esty who is also an advisor with Trendsetters, a program of the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation.
According to a Bikes for Books brochure, the program is a statewide initiative “to foster literacy programs in schools and encourage healthy exercise.”
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