BIKES FOR BOOKS PROGRAM
The Bikes for Books Program at Lakeside Lodge started in the fall of 2007 under WB Scott Anderson. I was asked by WB Scott to contact an individual at Lake Hills Elem. School in Bellevue who he had found through neighbor was the contact person at Lake Hills.
I set up a meeting with her to review the program with her see if they were interested. She presented this program to the Principal and other members of the staff and they decided to proceed. We presented our set of two Bikes in early Jan. of 2008 with the then Grand Master MWB Charles McQuery and Deputy Grand Master Wayne Smith and WB Scott Anderson in attendance along with about a half dozen other Lakeside members.
As a result of this first program we were able to expand in the spring to include Phantom Lake Elem. and Sherwood Forrest in the program presenting a total of eight Bikes during our first program year.
We are now into our second year and have Ardemore Elem. into the program for a total four schools and will have presented sixteen Bikes at the end of the 2007-2008 school year.
We also brought Lakeside Chapter O.E.S., into the program as well as Bellevue Rainbow Ass. & Bellevue Chapter order of DeMolay. Bellevue Rainbow and Bellevue DeMolay put a Book Fair in conjunction with Barnes & Noble Book Store to assist in raising funds for the program.
We also have Officers of the Bellevue Police Dept Bike Unit at our presentations to talk to the students about bicycle Safety.
MASONS HELP PUMP KIDS UP TO READ
Sherry Grindeland
Seattle Times Eastside columnist
Reading paid off for two Lake Hills Elementary students in Bellevue, Farah Uraizee, a fifth-grader, and Callie Jenckes, a second-grader, won new bicycles last week in a Bike for Books drawing.
The girls earned chances on the bikes by reading. Students at Lake Hills received one chance for every 20 minutes they read.
Bikes for Books is sponsored by Bellevue’s Lakeside Masonic Lodge. It provides two bikes each fall and spring to Lake Hills, Sherwood Forest and Phantom Lake schools.
The Bikes for Books program is a national Masonic project.
“The idea is to improve children’s reading,” said Sprague Vigus of Bellevue, a longtime lodge member. “Sometimes the chance to win a bike can be just the incentive a child needs to pick up a book.”
Spring bike awards will be made at Sherwood Forest and Phantom Lake in the next couple of weeks. Credit those Masons for thinking of everything – the gift includes safety helmets.
BOOK READING EARNS BIKES FOR ARDMORE STUDENTS
By Carrie Wood
Bellevue Reporter
This go around, Ardmore Elementary students read a total of 177,840 minutes.
“That’s 2,965 hours,” Angela Dunavant, principal, told a cheering crowd of nearly 300 students during a recent assembly that recognized students who participated in the school’s new Bikes for Books Program.
As kindergartners through 5th graders looked to the front, eager to hear their name called, teachers lined up at the mic. Students’ names were read aloud and then Dunavant pulled raffle tickets from a jar, one by one.
After each name was drawn, students whooped and clapped. Each winner collected one of several prizes, including a Hannah Montana (Disney character) poster, paperback books, water bottles, Chuck E. Cheese tokens and gift certificates to McDonald’s and Dairy Queen.
But students couldn’t help but look at the two gleaming grand prizes that would go to the boy and girl who read the most – a yellow and a pink Magna bicycle.
Bikes for Books, which started at Ardmore in November, is a national reading incentive program that is sponsored by local Masonic lodges. In Bellevue, it is sponsored by the Lakeside Masonic Lodge.
For each 20-30 minute session that students read at home, a ticket was filled out and put into a raffle jar for a chance to win. During the assembly, 85 raffle prizes were given out that were gathered from the school book fair and PTSA. The Lakeside Masonic Lodge also donated two new bikes and helmets.
“We want to focus children’s attention on reading as a fun activity and this is a way to give them an incentive and encourage them to read at home,” said Beverly Doleac, Ardmore literacy specialist, noting that two-thirds of the students participated.
During the assembly, the winners who read the most minutes – and the recipients of the new bikes – were named: Niko Suokko, 2nd-grader and Cheyenne Ness, 4th-grader.
“I’ve been reading the Magic Tree House books for pretty much of the time,” Niko said. “I like reading because it’s fun.”
Cheyenne read mostly Nancy Drew books, her favorite being “Scream for Ice Cream.”
According to Sprague Vigus, representative of the Lakeside Lodge, “the program encourages reading, which over the long run we feel will improve their study habits and there’s already been some indication of that and that they learn how to comprehend more.”
BIKES FOR BOOKS
By VWB Sprague G. Vigus
Lakeside Lodge No. 258, Bellevue
On Wednesday evening January 17th, 2007, Lakeside Lodge presented its first 'Bikes For Books' program at Lake Hills Elementary School in Bellevue. Although the anticipated crowd was not in attendance, there was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from the assembled crowd.
Students at Lake Hills Elementary earned tickets for the Bike drawing through the “Ready-Set-Read” Program sponsored by The King County Library System. In this program students read for twenty minutes a day for 20 days after which they receive a free paperback book. A parent, teacher, or counselor must sign off on the required reading. For each book they receive, they also get a ticket for the bike drawing. The reading can be completed in a shorter time period but must be 20 twenty-minute periods.
This program was the vision of our immediate Past Master WB Scott Anderson and will be carried on by our present Master, WB Dean Markley.
The bikes were won by Cedar Johnson a fourth grader and Nathalie Cruz who is in the fifth grade.
Officer Curt McIvor of the Bellevue Police Department Bicycle Unit talked to the students about bicycle safety.
Lakeside Lodge plans to expand this program to the six Title One Schools in the Bellevue School System.
We were pleased to have in attendance our Grand Master MWB Charles W. McQuery, his Lady Diane, our Deputy Grand Master RWB Wayne I. Smith, and Grand Lodge.