Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood — The Upper Peninsula Kids’ Herman (Winks) Gundlach “Read to Ride” program started Monday.
The program is designed to reward reading with the opportunity to win a bicycle for kids aged 6-14 by July 30. They must be residents of Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw or Ontonagon counties.
Kids need to fill out a “Read to Ride” entry form; available in school offices, public libraries, the Copper Country Intermediate School District, Gogebic-Ontonagon ISD, or on the internet at upkids.com.
A minimum of 20 bikes will be awarded on Thursday, Aug. 10. Each book read equals one opportunity to win a bike.
Lynne Wiercinski, librarian at the Ironwood Carnegie Library, said it is combined with the library’s own reading program so kids have double incentive.
Wiercinski said a handful of local kids have won bicycles over the years.
The Carnegie Library threw a bowling party with pizza and pop for the winner of its summer program last year and the kids had a great time according to Wiercinski.
She said instead of registering kids by the books to read for the local program, she focuses on the number of minutes spent reading. At thresholds of documented time, an equivalent mark is made for a book read. In this way, the playing field is leveled for all readers because marks are earned by time spent reading, not the number of books digested.
For Wiercinski, the summer reading programs are not for those kids who are going to read anyway. The summer programs look to get to kids who otherwise would not read.
Wiercinski focuses on making reading “fun and exciting and if a handful of kids who would not have read a book during the summer read a couple of books, the program is a success.”
