Riding for reading
Sandpoint Rotary presents a $100,000 donation to Lake Pend Oreille School District. Pictured from left are Mel Dick, Sandpoint Rotarian; Mariah Williams, Sandpoint Rotary finance committee chair; David Keyes, Sandpoint Rotarian; Dr. Becky Meyer, LPOSD superintendent; Margaret Tuddenham, Sandpoint Rotary president; and Andra Murray, LPOSD elementary education director.
Photo by ERIC WELCH
SANDPOINT — On Wednesday, Sandpoint’s Rotarians celebrated a successful fundraiser and presented the result — a $100,000 check — to Lake Pend Oreille School District.
The donation was enabled by proceeds from the 17th annual CHAFE 150 Gran Fondo, a charity group cycling ride hosted by Sandpoint Rotary on June 15.
“We had our most successful financial ride ever,” Rotarian Mel Dick told attendees of the monthly meeting and presentation event.
At the same time, Dick described the event as “our most challenging ride ever.”
In this year's CHAFE 150, riders braved a surprise front of unseasonable weather that battered cyclists as they pedaled around the Cabinet Mountains east of Lake Pend Oreille. Thanks to the help of many volunteers, 199 participants across the six distances crossed the finish line.
"The weather was terrible,” Dick said. “We had heavy rain, we had hail, snow, freezing temperatures.”
In spite of it all, the organization generated nearly $154,000 in net income from the ride, making Wednesday’s $100,000 donation possible.
The funds generated from the CHAFE 150 will go toward Lake Pend Oreille School District’s literacy program and Book Trust.
Book Trust works to promote reading motivation and engagement by offering elementary school students a chance to pick out and keep books of their choice.
Additionally, the donation will help support LPOSD’s mission to make every student a reader by graduation — a goal spurred by recent state legislation promoting dyslexia support in public schools.
“The state of Idaho assisted with funding this initiative in year one,” said Lisa McElroy, LPOSD instructional coach and literacy lead. “But as you know, those funds go away.”
“We are on a trajectory of incredible movement,” McElroy added. “We're here to ask you to help us to continue with that.”
In a draft plan shared at the meeting, LPOSD said it intends to use the donated funds to place a literacy coach in each building and enable staff to pursue professional development opportunities.
“We believe in our school district that literacy is our greatest civil right,” said McElroy. “It's so important that it's the deal breaker.”
As a show of thanks, LPOSD Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer pledged that the district will bring 15 volunteers annually to future editions of the CHAFE 150.
On Sept. 9, The WaCanId, a 395-mile cycling tour organized in part by Sandpoint Rotary, will launch from City Beach in Sandpoint. Next year’s CHAFE 150 is slated for June 14, 2025.