Lincoln Libraries Honored as National Winners in Reading Challenge

Lincoln City Libraries announced Monday that it is one of the national winners of Beanstack’s Second Annual Winter Reading Challenge.

Lincoln participants read for more than 3 million minutes.  The program, sponsored by billionaire investor and “Shark Tank” personality Mark Cuban, challenged 250 libraries nationally to meet a collective goal of reading at least 5 million minutes and 75,000 books in January.

The Lincoln libraries will donate its share of a $35,000 prize to the Begin with Books program, which provides new books to low-income families.  LCL was also a national winner last year, with readers logging more than 1.5 million minutes.

Local reading challenge winners include:

• Kindle Paperwhite eReader – Noah Hensley
• $50 gift certificate to The Mill, Francie and Finch Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, or the Marcus Theatres – Enny Marrs, Mary McCandless, Donald Schmidt, Vikki Hawkins, Mary Boyington, Benjamin Davis, James Huston, Anthony Brown, Mike Page, and Kathy Ashley.
• Classroom pizza party – Crystal Starr’s sixth grade class at Schoo Middle School; Mrs. Heimes’ ninth grade class at Lincoln Southwest High School; Cody Wallinger’s seventh grade class at St. Joseph’s Catholic School; Janet Marcelino’s first grade class at Rousseau Elementary; and Amanda Deras’ fourth grade class at Kooser Elementary.