Bikes for Books helps Masons encourage young readers

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

GUILFORD — For the second consecutive year students at the Piscataquis Community Elementary School have an even greater incentive to read with the Bikes for Books program, this year being sponsored by the Mount Kineo #109 Masonic Lodge of Guilford and Abner Wade #207 of Sangerville.

Observer file photo/Mike Lange
READING IS FUN(DAMENTAL) — For the second year in a row, students at Piscataquis Community Elementary School in Guilford have the opportunity to win new bicycles thanks to the Mount Kineo and Abner Wade Masonic Lodges’ Bikes for Books progam. Pictured are the boys winners last year are front, from left, Trey Rodgers, Matthew Chadbourne, Gabriel Soctomah, Jacob Duncan, Quenton Blanchard, Bradon Reed and Blaze Moody. Back, Herb Libby, program coordinator from the Mount Kineo Masonic Lodge, Val Kand of the Mount Kineo Lodge, Anah Temple Shrine Clown Gizmo and Scott Hoyle, master of ceremonies from the Pleasant River Lodge of Brownville.

Program coordinator, and Maine Masonic District No. 5 Ritual Instructor, Herb Libby explained this year’s Bikes for Books began the first of February and for each selection students read they can have an entry put into the drawing for a new bicycle. “Girls and boys, each grade kindergarten through sixth grade, will be drawn,” he said. “The more books they read, the better the chance.”

Libby said new bicycles will be given to PCES students, along with a new helmet to wear when the students are riding in the spring. He said funds for the bikes and accessories have come from area Granges as well as local businesses.

“There is a matching fund from the Grand Lodge of Maine Youth Activities Committee,” Libby said. “They will give us $2 for every dollar we raise, so the Grand Lodge is very much behind us.”

The bike presentation is scheduled for Friday, April 15 at 8 a.m., and Libby said a pair of Anah Shrine clowns will be present to entertain the student body. “This year we will have 28 bikes at the Guilford assembly to give away,” Libby said, with the total doubled from 2015.

He said students who may not need or want a new bike still have an incentive to read as many books as they can. These youngsters can list a friend’s name on the card, and Libby said should this entry be drawn both students will be recognized with the bike going to the designated recipient. “It will still encourage students to read even if they don’t want a bike,” he said.

“Nearly every Lodge in the Fifth Masonic Lodge District is doing this program to help the kids get reading,” Libby said. He said Piscataquis #44 of Milo and Pleasant River #163 in Brownville been conducting Bikes for Books in SAD 41 for about a half dozen years. Libby said Mosaic #52 in Dover-Foxcroft is encouraging pupils at the SeDoMoCha School to get reading, and later in the school year students in Greenville will have the opportunity to have their names drawn for bikes thanks to Columbia-Doric #149.