MIDDLEBORO — Representatives of the Middleboro Library thanked the Middleboro Rotary Club for “bee-ing’’ the sponsor of the Teen Summer Reading Challenge.

During the challenge, titled “Read, Renew, Repeat,” 82 teens read a total of 2,793 hours. They raised enough money to reach the goal of purchasing 16 gifts of honeybees through Heifer International’s donation program. 

The Rotary Club donated $500 for the gift of honeybees.

The “Read to Bee the Change” challenge and the opportunity it offered teens to look beyond themselves helped to rejuvenate interest and provide a new way to motivate teens to read over the summer,  Teen Services Librarian Christine Dargelis said.

More teens registered than last year, she said, and they logged larger reading amounts than in the past two years. The program saw a 15 percent increase in participation from last year, and a 36 percent rise in total number of hours read.