By Julie McCay Turner
The Lane School Summer Reading Program asked that students track the minutes they read over the summer, with a specific goal in mind: Principal Rob Ackerman would be willing to kiss a pig if students read for more than 275,000 minutes.
When the students logged a 65% increase beyond Mr. Ackerman’s goal, the stakes got higher.
No ordinary stuffed toy pig would do.
Enter Oreo, a resident of Bedford and a pet of the Fedele family. Shay Fedele caught Oreo in a greased pig contest at the Fryeburg Fair in 2012. That 10-pound pig is now a 900-pound giant who spent part of its childhood at Chip-in Farm, and now resides in a barn on the family’s property.
Oreo arrived at Lane School on Friday afternoon in fine fettle, hoping for a kiss from Mr. Ackerman.
The all-school assembly gathered to bestow ribbons on the students whose reading minutes earned their acclaim, but the main event came later.
After kissing a pair of toy pigs, the entire student body and teachers poured out the back doors of the gym and gathered on the hillside in front of a white trailer.
Oreo peered out when the trailer’s side door opened.
Mr Ackerman moved in close and indeed gave Oreo not one but a couple of kisses as the cameraman from WBZ-TV looked on and the kids roared their approval.
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