SABATTUS – Erin Reynolds, watching classmates careen around the parking lot in a tricycle relay, a mess of awkward elbows and knees and giant smiles, said her mom would have been proud.

Esther Reynolds, a popular, longtime education technician, died of cancer last November. On Tuesday, all of Sabattus Central School turned out to cheer on a trike-a-thon for the Esther Reynolds Memorial. They want to transform the middle of the school’s overgrown bus circle into a garden with her favorite flowers, benches and a plaque.

In 10 days, students and staff raised $1,696.72 for the project.

Tammy Fisher said she told students that morning, “I would have been thrilled and happy if you’d raised a couple hundred dollars. Seventeen hundred blows my mind.”

Her eighth-graders organized the effort. They called local businesses to ask for donations and went into classrooms to describe the trike-a-thon to other students. She knows of kids who donated lunch money and allowances. Grades three to eight participated.

“We got a bag this morning with 13 cents in it,” Fisher said.

Students and staff formed six-member teams to raise money. During the relay, each person pedaled – or attempted to pedal – 100 feet of a 600-foot loop around the bus circle. The first leg – downhill – looked easy, if slightly harried. The last legs, uphill, more difficult.

Jane Blais, a sixth-grade teacher, guessed it had been about 45 years since she’d been on a tricycle.

“It went faster than I expected,” she said. “Esther Reynolds would have loved this, this type of activity. She was very much about making learning fun for kids.”

Reynolds taught at the school for 17 years and had a passion for reading and encouraging kids to read.

Education technician Heidi Black said the plan is to keep 11 shade trees in the overgrown plot, even out the ground, perhaps add benches and a gazebo, and plant forsythia and lupines, her favorite flowers.

“(Lupines) were handed out at her funeral. Everyone received a packet so they could plant them,” Black said.

The project’s cost was estimated at $5,000 to $6,000. A bottle drive is planned for fall.

Reynolds’ daughter Kelly, in the sixth grade, donated some of her own money. She liked the design. “I think she would like it, too.”

Reynolds’ other daughter, Erin, an eighth-grader, said all of the effort was appreciated. Both girls were on fundraising trike-a-thon teams.

“I was really surprised that all of these people pulled together to raise that much,” Erin Reynolds said. “She loved this school. At one point, I think she tried to (design something for the bus circle) with the librarian, but it didn’t get very far. I’m sure that she’s pretty proud of what we’re doing.”