Top left, Town Administrator Christopher Brittain; right, the Rev. Brian McGrath, pastor at St. Mary's, reads to children.

Participants in Read Across America Day at St. Mary's included community, business and spiritual leaders and a local author. 

LEE, Mass. — In conjunction with Read Across America, St. Mary's School is starting its big reading challenge.

"For every 10 minutes a kiddo reads they get a coin that goes into a big bin. At the end of the month, they will get either an ice cream party for whoever reads the most or a pizza party, something like that," said Principal Cara Maiorana-Culver. "March is literacy month and literacy is so important to schools and something that doesn't get enough emphasis."

Third-grade teacher Amanda Reis invited Town Administrator Christopher Brittain, Police Chief Craig DeSantis, Stacy Simms from Lee Bank, Loren Nazarov from Lee Library, the Rev. Brian McGrath, local author Michelle Cuevas, and state Rep. Leigh Davis to come and read to classrooms Monday.

The community leaders spoke to different grades and read a book of their choice or had conversations about what the books meant or about the leaders' work.

Leigh Davis spoke to Grades 6-8 about what she does and read the book "The Dreaming Tree," the story of a young girl advocating for a tree to not be cut down in her neighborhood, saying anyone can raise their voice for what they believe in.

"Being a role model in the community you live in is so important and I hope that I can provide that and one of the topics were talking about is how can you advocate for yourself how can you advocate for your community, for your school, for your town, for your district and the power that you have within you to make a difference so that is something that I really tried to get across to the students," Davis said. 

The newly elected representative for the Third District brought up topics like road conditions, bridge maintenance, and animal rights. Davis told the students about how she became a representative and asked what they would like to be when they are older. 

Seventh-grade student Eva Sinopoli thinks it was important for Davis to speak to her class about her job and the different things they can do to help and that they have a voice.

"I think it's really important because some people like whether it be us in school feeling like we don't really have a voice because of our age being younger than others but it's a really important thing to bring up because some people think there are things that need to be spoken up for and you might not have that happen unless you speak up yourself," she said.

"I think that was helpful that if you believe in something you should be passionate trying to change something for better in your community," said eighth-grader Gus Gleason.

Seventh grader Sophie Sparks said Davis was nice and that it was cool to be able to meet a representative and that she encouraged them to follow their dreams.

"If there's any issues or if there is something that you want to be fixed and follow your dreams see what you want to be," she said.

DeSantis spoke to kindergarteners and read them "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie." He said he likes community engagement and interacting with kids at all the schools. 

"It's a great way for different people and kids to interact with different professions and different people in our community, community leaders, and it's a chance for the kids to interact," he said. "And on a personal level with law enforcement anytime we get to go in and interact with kids in a positive way like this is a win I love to do it and it gives them a chance to see us as normal people so that they feel comfortable and be able to start building those relationships."

"I liked when he talked about when the mouse was drinking the milk and when he was eating the cookie and then I liked him when he was reading," said kindergartener Natalee Sedelow. 

Brittain spoke to the third and fourth graders and read "What If There Were No Bees."

"It was important for two reasons. One, you know, to promote reading it. But also, in this case, there was a message about, you know, the environment and our food supply, and also about, you know, ecosystems and food webs and the interrelationship between mechanisms," said Brittain.

"Community is so important to St. Mary's and we love getting community members in just to see all the amazing things we have going on here and just so that the kiddos can make connections outside of our school as well," said Maiorana-Culver.

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