When you know it's right, you do it. Who teaches us that? Well Brenda Hoerner, Canyon Elementary School Principal, believes the time is now for her students to learn about making good choices about attendance and the students are stepping up.

"To help teach this concept to Canyon students, we reward them with a bike for perfect attendance. The result? "Many kids are here now," says Brenda. "Many of these children get up and get ready all on their own and not only are they here, they get here on time."

Canyon Elementary Principal Brenda Hoerner hands out perfect attendance certificates to students who earned bikes.

Lincoln Cheetham, father of two students and a past Canyon Elementary student, emphasizes what we all know is the "right thing" stating, "It is easier to teach a student if they are in class. If it takes a bike to do it, I'm committed." In fact, he's helped garner support for 21 bikes so far this year from area businesses to reward kids with perfect attendance.

Brenda asks all 120 students in the assembly, "Can you miss a half day?" "No!" they say. "Can you miss one hour?" she continues. A resounding "NO" respond the kids. One last time, "Can you miss one ounce?" "Nooooo!" they shout.

In the past, students have gotten a root beer float gift card for perfect attendance and loved it. Now these students make sure their parents reschedule any appointments made on their behalf so they don't miss any school. The cold and flu season took it's toll on the student body as only seven bikes were given away this trimester. Linc and Brenda stress that, of course they don't want kids who are extremely sick attending just to get the bike. That's not the idea. It's more about providing additional incentive to make good choices about their attendance.

"I think it pretty darn cool," says Linc. "I always wanted to do something special. Elementary school is a special time. Attending school to gain this foundational knowledge sets them up for better things in the future."

Brenda, Linc and students thank all the sponsors. As a sponsor, Flathead Electric invites anyone interested in helping with this Canyon Elementary program to call the school at 387-5323 or Linc at 387-4288.

Applications Received
& Approved

Roundup For Safety is a voluntary program for FEC members.

Participating members allow their electric bills to be rounded up to the next dollar, with the extra money going into a fund for community safety projects.

Applications from non-profit groups are considered each month by a board of directors representing each Co-op district.

For information and application forms, call 751-4483 in Kalispell and 293-7122 in Libby.