Bicycle giveaway inspires students

PALMER — If nearly 50,000 little red lottery tickets and six beaming students are any indication, the Matanuska Masonic Lodge’s “Bikes for Books” reading incentive program at Sherrod Elementary School was a huge success.

Sherrod students already had read books worth nearly 20,000 more tickets, or points, than they did last year, said school librarian Debbie Melton Monday before students learned which six lucky readers would be taking home new Roadmaster mountain bikes.

Melton explained that shorter books are worth one ticket, while thicker books like those in the Harry Potter series earned readers 20 or 30 tickets for the bike drawing. She said students had to pass quizzes on their books before they were given the tickets.

“The kids were really excited to see the bikes when they were brought in in January and they wanted to know what they could do to win them,” Melton said as members of the Matanuska Masonic Lodge hung new helmets and bike locks from the handlebars of each bike before they were wheeled into the gymnasium for the music assembly.

One girl and one boy from each grade, three through five, were awarded a new Roadmaster bike at Sherrod and one boy and one girl from each grade, kindergarten through second, will win a bike at Swanson Elementary Wednesday.

John “Bo” Cline, secretary of the local Masonic Lodge, said that although the Mason’s have been doing a “Bikes for Books” program in the states for at least 15 years, this was the first year it’s been done in Alaska.

“The Masonry has a rich heritage of supporting education,” Cline said. “When America’s settlers traveled across the United States, the first buildings they would put up would be a little red schoolhouse, a little white church and a little blue lodge.”

But it was actually Cline’s wife, Beth, who encouraged the lodge to sponsor a local program for elementary students. Beth Cline, after all, taught at Swanson for 21 years before retiring in 2004.

Cline said it was easy to convince lodge members to donate to the cause and to get other individuals and businesses on board to raise $1,800 for the dozen bikes and equipment.

Matanuska Telephone Association and Matanuska Electric Association each donated $200, Fred Meyer threw in a $200 gift card for the helmets and locks, Palmer businesses man Jeff Johnson gave $100, Walmart provided an $80 gift card for a bike, the CEO of Lynden International threw in $100 and the company donated $200 more, and a local UPS store provided all the printing for brochures and flyers, Cline said.

“Our goal is to expand to more schools, like Sutton, Butte, Pioneer Peak and Academy Charter in the future,” Cline said.

Before announcing the names of the winners, Cline apologized for not being able to give every student in the school a new bike.

The winners included third-graders Cole LaCasse and Mary Chebukin, fourth-graders Noah Valadez and Abrianna Busbey, and fifth-graders Zion Rogers and Leah Smith.

When Busbey’s name was called, her mother Cathy, a Sherrod administrator, cheered and said, “Yes! Now I don’t have to buy her a bike!”

Busbey said her daughter became much more interested in reading since learning about the bike giveaway.

“Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get her to read,” she said. “It was much easier this year.”

Valadez, 10, said he read as many mystery and thriller books as he could and put 16 tickets in the pot earlier that day. But the bike appears to be too big for him, he said.

“I’m going to give it to my older brother,” he said. “He just turned 16. I already have a nice bike that I got for my birthday in January and I’m tired of him riding it all the time.”

Rogers, 11, said he thinks he read about seven more books than he normally would have this quarter and ended up earning 60 tickets.

He said that although he already has a bike, this is his first mountain bike.

“It’s pretty exciting,” he said. “I got caught off guard. I wasn’t expecting to win.”

Chebukin, 9, said the contest inspired her to read about 45 books this year when she normally reads about 25.

“This is my first bike of my own,” she said, smiling shyly.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.