Throughout March, educators from across Maine participated in MEA’s Read Across Maine Challenge. Read Across Maine is part of the National Education Association’s Read Across America initiative. Educators set individualized reading goals for their classrooms to encourage students to develop a love for reading, explore diverse books, and improve reading skills by embarking on an exciting reading journey through Maine.

MEA President Grace Leavitt visited the two grand prize-winning classrooms to present them each with a Little Free Library for their schools, to read to their classes, and congratulate each class on their reading growth.

MEA awarded four prizes for the Read Across Maine Contest:

Grand Prize: Ashley Cram from Steep Falls Elementary and Holly Morgan from Palermo Consolidated School. Both classrooms displayed significant growth with their reading goal and won a Little Free Library for each of their schools, $1,000 to purchase books for their classroom libraries, and a book for every student in the class.

Second Place: Kim Nielsen’s third-grade class at Crooked River Elementary earned second place and won $500 for their classroom library.

Third Place: Nick Fuller’s fourth-grade class at CK Burns School won third place, earning each student a book to bring home for the summer.