Simpson, Poore win Bikes for Books drawing

Payton Simpson is all smiles with her new blue bike. Courtesy Pateros School District

Ezekiel Poore, pictured with his new wheels, is one happy guy.

Para-educator Megan Sherrard holds an armload of tickets she hand-processed for the bike drawing. Courtesy Pateros School district Facebook

Posted Tuesday, May 26, 2020 4:15 pm

Mike Maltais, Staff writer

PATEROS – A couple of happy Pateros Elementary School students are smarter and more mobile this week after winning the school’s annual Bikes for Books drawing held May 15.

Third grader Payton Simpson and fourth grader Ezekiel Poore were selected in a random drawing by principal Mike Hull who pulled their names from two cannisters full of entry tickets. The bikes were once again provided by the local Masonic chapter, Hermanos del Arte Lodge No. 314.

Students from grades one through 6 became eligible for the drawing by participating in the Silverwood Read 2 Ride competition where students completed 10 hours of reading and completed an online AR (Accelerated Reading) test for each book read. Completed reading logs were turned in by April 30 and an entry ticket was awarded for each book a student read.

And there were lots of tickets.

According to a post on the school’s Facebook page, para-educator Megan Sherrard hand-wrote 1,506 tickets for the boys alone.

Students then had to wait 15 nerve-wracking days for the logs to be verified, tickets printed and gathered together for the big drawing at mid-month.