Bigfork Masons encourage reading through bike program

Eight Swan River School students read their way to a new bicycle this year through the Bigfork Masonic Lodge’s Bikes for Books program.

Principal Peter Loyda said this is the ninth year they’ve run the program. It’s run through an accelerated reader computer program. Once a student finishes a book, they take a comprehension exam and gain points based on how well they understood the book.

Loyda thinks the bike incentive is an effective tool for stimulating extra reading at home.

“We don’t get as much reading done at home as we’d like,” Loyda said. “We think we get more books checked out and taken home, we get more kids who are reading at home with that incentive.”

In the next week each grade’s top point winner will get the chance go with a Bigfork Mason to Walmart and pick out their bicycle.

Bike winners were announced last week during a school assembly; the first-grade winner was Erin Abbot, second-grade was Peter Shokur, third-grade, Ellie Haag, fourth-grade, Courtney Boese, fifth, Hannah Cruisinger, sixth, Colton Lukinuk, seventh, Austin Keller, and the eighth-grade winner was Hayden Hartland.

The ultimate goal is to get children to continue reading after the program is over.

“Those kids who have won bikes before are still our top readers because they love it so much,” Loyda said.

But each kid only gets one chance to win a bicycle. If a previous winner wins again, they get a gift certificate for Book Works in Kalispell and the runner-up claims the bicycle prize.

Lakeside Elementary School also particpiated in the Bikes for Books program through the Bigfork Masonic Lodge, but rather than run it for the whole school year LES ran it the last two months of the school year.

And rather than have the top reader win the bicycle, LES has a drawing out of a bucket. The more a student reads, the more tickets they get in the bucket.

It’s the sixth year Lakeside has run the program and principle John Thies agrees with Loyda about the effectiveness of the incentive.

“I would say it has to help,” Thies said. “Those buckets were pretty full, it shows the kids have done a lot of reading.”

Cayuse Prairie School has participated in past years, but opted out of participating this year. Bigfork Mason member LeRoy Lau said each year the Bigfork lodge gives away an average of 18 bicycles.

The Grand Lodge of Montana started the program over a decade ago and each Masonic lodge can opt to particpate.

The cost of the bikes are split between the participating lodge and the Grand Lodge.

“We feel that community involvement in education is an asset to the community,” Lau said. “It’s vital to the young men and women that they get a good education.”