Bikes for Books
Literacy Campaign
By Tom Hendrickson-PGM
About five years ago or so Red Wing Lodge #8 was looking for
a project to help make their community a better place. They approached Burnside elementary School in
their hometown of Red Wing to partner for a program aimed at children’s
literacy.
The Bikes for Books Literacy Campaign emphasizes the
following.
It is essential to establish a love
for reading early in a child’s life.
The program encourages students to
read.
By encouraging reading, student’s
comprehension skills improve.
The campaign recognizes student’s
achievements in reading.
The program operates in this manner. One boys bicycle and helmet along with one
girls bicycle and helmet is given to one student per grade by random
drawing. To be eligible for the drawing
a student must read eight books that have been approved by the teacher for that
grade. The teacher insures that the book
is at the appropriate reading level (War and Peace is not at the third grade
level. Ha) for the grade level. The
student receives one ticket for the drawing once the teacher has confirmed that
the eight books have been read. Reading
eight books equals one change to win. The
more books the student reads the more chances they have to win.
In 2016 two bicycles were added to the program as prizes for
the top readers within the entire elementary school. This year 1152 books were read by the
students and the top reader completed 120 books.
During the last week of school, at a school wide assembly,
the drawings are held. You can bet that
there are a lot of kids with crossed fingers and a wish of “pick me, pick me”.
Red Wing Lodge and Burnside Elementary School Bikes for
Books program has created a lot of excitement among the students and positive
comments from parents and educators. But
the most important things are that the program encourages kids to read.
The Brothers of Red Wing Lodge would also like to thank MN
Masonic Charities for assisting the Lodge in helping encouraging the kids at
Burnside Elementary to read.
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