BY STEVEN JUPITER
FORESTDALE—The Union Lodge of Masons in Brandon sponsored a “Read to Ride” bike raffle last Friday at the Neshobe Elementary School to promote both literacy and fitness. At a full-school assembly, names were drawn to present one student in each grade with a brand-new bicycle and helmet. Students earned one ticket per 20 minutes of tracked reading. A student who read for an hour, for example, would earn three tickets and thus three chances to win the bicycle designated for that student’s grade. The assembly was led by Neshobe Librarian Hannah Fjeld.
The bicycles were purchased by the Masons from Green Mountain Bikes (GMB) in Rochester. According to Doon Hinderyckx of GMB, the seven bicycles (for K through 6) had a retail value of over $4,000. The helmets were donated by the Brandon Recreation Department.
Before the drawing, as the entire school sat on the gymnasium floor before him, Mr. Hinderyckx spoke with the kids about bicycle safety and the importance of wearing helmets. Several students shared their own experiences of being protected by helmets during falls from their bikes.
“You tracked hundreds and hundreds of hours of reading,” Ms. Fjeld told the kids.
THE FULL-SCHOOL ASSEMBLY in the gymnasium at Neshobe School in Forest Dale where winners of the “Read to Ride” raffle were drawn.
Ms. Fjeld then asked the crowd whether the raffle had spurred anyone to read more than they normally would have. Almost all the kids raised a hand in the affirmative. Ms. Fjeld also emphasized that the drawing was an opportunity to practice empathy: those who won should empathize with the disappointment of those who did not and those who did not win should empathize with the joy of those who did. But so everyone ended up feeling like a winner, especially having done so much reading, each student at Neshobe received a coupon for a free creemee at Brandon House of Pizza.
Members of the Union Lodge and St. Paul’s Lodge (both of Brandon) drew the winning names:
- Kindergarten: Braylin O’Dell
- 1st Grade: Connor Mack
- 2nd Grade: Aryanna O’Dell
- 3rd Grade: Trevor Tyminski
- 4th Grade: Shennay Ingram
- 5th Grade: Landon Euber
- 6th Grade: Jordan Hemple
Congrats to all the winners, and to all the students who kept their noses buried in books, which is an accomplishment in itself. And those creemees were probably super sweet on Saturday, when we got an early touch of spring warmth.
L TO R: Cedric Tashro of Union Lodge, Jim Selleck of Union Lodge, Neshobe Librarian Hannah Fjeld, Doon Hinderyckx of Green Mountain Bikes in Rochester, Seth Hopkins of St. Paul’s Lodge.
The St. Paul’s Masonic Lodge of Brandon also showed its support for the community recently with donations to the Brandon Food Shelf and the Brandon Area Toy Project.
The Union Lodge and St. Paul’s Lodge share the Masonic Lodge building on the corner of Park Street Extension and Country Club Road in Brandon, though they are two separate Lodges. St. Paul’s Lodge is Brandon’s “hometown” Lodge, founded in 1852. Union Lodge was founded in Middlebury in 1794. After the Union Lodge sold its historic building in Middlebury, however, an agreement was made with St. Paul’s Lodge to share the building in Brandon.
