Lincoln high school students looking for children to read to

LINCOLN - Mattanawcook Academy seniors Caroline Smart and KassieToby love reading. They hoped to imbue grade-schoolers with thatsame fascination. Their reading selections, "Clifford the Big RedDog" and "Magic Tree House," were set. The class plan was complete,and in the basement reading area of the Lincoln Memorial Library onSaturday, they waited.

But nobody came.

"It's disappointing," Toby said Saturday. "We work on our lessonplans all week to prepare and set up here an hour early. To have noone turn up is sad."

The 17-year-old Lincoln residents since early January have beentrying to run a children's literacy program as part of earningcredit in teacher Curt Ring's service learning class at the Lincolnhigh school. Only once, they said, did any parents bring children byfor the program.

They aren't bitter about it, but the students blame apathy andthe false sense of community created by the Internet, computers andother social networking devices for the lack of turnout.

"Everybody is in their own bubble. People don't do face-to-faceanymore," Smart said. "I know when I was a kid, my mother would havebeen all over a program like this, but parents today don't bringtheir kids to things like this as much anymore."

Assistant Librarian Carol Johnson said she didn't know why thestudents' program has drawn so little attention. The studentscirculated notes home to all parents of pupils at Ella P. BurrSchool and fifth-graders at Mattanawcook Junior High School ofLincoln, posted fliers around town and had notices of their activityprinted in the library's bulletin and a local weekly newspaper.

"They have been trying everything they could," Johnson said.

Community programming, however, is a hit-or-miss proposition,Johnson said.

"Something you plan for just a little crowd sometimes justexplodes, and sometimes something that you think will draw a bigprogram just won't go off," she said.

Mattanawcook Academy's service learning program has had studentsengaged in several community-helping activities. Most recently,students have been mapping the names, dates of birth and death, andsiting of gravestones at all town cemeteries to help town governmentoffset a lack of detailed records. Aside from the sharp memory ofHervey Clay of Clay's Funeral Home of Lincoln, the town has anincomplete record of who is buried where in its cemeteries.

Smart and Toby were already community-oriented before they tookin the class taught by Ring, a Lincoln Town Council member. Besidesbeing honor students, both do volunteer work at their churches andwork part-time jobs, they said.

They plan to keep trying to make their project work, they said.

"One thing Mr. Ring said was that we can't cure other people'sapathy," Smart said. "He said if we gave up, we would never forgiveourselves."

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