LEWISTON — In 1997, Mac McPeake, now known as “Mr. Mac” to countless people, was among a small group of volunteers who worked to create a literacy program for young children to get them excited about reading before they entered school.

McPeake said teachers told the committee they could tell within the first weeks of entering school whether a child had been read to, and those who had been exposed to reading had a much easier time learning and were more successful in school.

Volunteers with the program, known as BookReach, now read to roughly 300 children under the age of 5 each month in child care and preschool facilities such as Promise Early Education.

McPeake, who is retiring this year due to health problems, has been a volunteer reader since its inception. He helped secure grant funding, book donations and helped recruit the first few volunteer readers for the pilot program, allowing the effort to grow. The Lewiston and Auburn public libraries have funded BookReach since 2002.

Sadie Bonang, the BookReach coordinator at Lewiston Public Library, said the public libraries “will forever be grateful for the impact Mac McPeake has had on our community through his dedicated early-literacy work. Both libraries are actively recruiting new child care providers, preschools, and local volunteers to get involved so that BookReach can continue in the years to come.”

Bonang said McPeake’s work “imagined a way to bring storytimes to the youngest populations” in Lewiston, Auburn and Minot.

McPeake said reading “opens a big, new world” for children, and agrees that children who read are more likely to be successful in school, “therefore improving their chances of becoming responsible citizens who pass on their love of reading to their children and further improving our communities.”

“I am extremely proud of the committee’s work,” he said about the program. “BookReach has given me a great deal of joy in the past 25 years. I have met and worked with some wonderful child care providers, hundreds and hundreds of children, gracious library staff, and BookReach staff.”

McPeake said he’s often recognized in the community by parents who comment on how much their child enjoyed the program.

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” he said.

In 2008, McPeake was given the Governor’s Exemplary Service Award from Gov. John Baldacci. He’s also a past president of the Lewiston-Auburn Rotary Club.

When the work to establish the program got underway in 1997, McPeake was a member of the Lewiston Twin City Aspiration Partnership, a group of local businesspeople, educators, and other citizens who were seeking ways to improve the community. He said he volunteered to chair one of the “aspiration” committees, which ended up choosing childhood literacy as a goal.

“Sadly, due to health problems, I feel I am no longer able to give 100% to the program and it deserves 100%,” he said.

Know someone with a deep well of unlimited public spirit? Someone who gives of their time to make their community a better place? Then nominate them for Kudos. Send their name and the place where they do their good deeds to reporter Andrew Rice at arice@sunjournal.com and we’ll do the rest.

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