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.