Students, from left, Paris Staton, Nathaniel Gray and Kai Joyner claim the new bicycles they won in Race to Success, a contest at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School that rewarded achievements in math. Fifth-grade winner Bentley Nyman was not present for the surprise presentation at school Tuesday. The contest was sponsored by S.J.G. Greater Sports and its president, Donyell Bryant, with help from local members of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. The presentation was made by, from left, W.D. Anderson, Jerry Burns, Bryant and Tim Davis. All are members of Omega Psi Phi and Anderson, vice-chair of the Lenoir County Board of Education, was principal when Bryant was a student at the old Savannah Middle School.

Four students at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School found new bicycles under the Christmas tree on Tuesday, their reward not just for being good but for being the best in a competition that focused on math skills.

Race to Success, which rewarded academic growth and proficiency in mathematics for both elementary and middle school students, was the brainchild of Donyell Bryant, president of S.J.G. Greater Sports LLC and a Lenoir County native now living in Raleigh.

Bryant worked with LCPS administrators Stacy Cauley, director of elementary education, and Christel Carlyle, director of middle school education, along with CSS principal Dr. Heather Walston, to shape a contest that provided bikes as prizes for a girl and boy in grades K-4 who showed the most growth this school year according to standardized math tests, for the fifth grade student who posted the highest math proficiency score, and for a middle school student selected at random from a pool of top math students.

Bike winners were third-grader Paris Staton, fourth-grader Nathaniel Gray, fifth-grader Bentley Nyman and seventh grader Kai Joyner.

The students were presented the new mountain bikes in a surprise ceremony at CSS attended by Bryant, his Omega Psi Phi fraternity brothers Tim Davis, Jerry Burns and W.D. Anderson, who is vice-chair of the Lenoir County Board of Education, administrators Cauley and Carlyle, Dr. Walston and other members of the CSS faculty.

For Bryant, as with fellow Lenoir County natives Davis and Burns, Race to Success was a way to recognize students’ hard work as well as tighten the connection to home and their own past.

“We are Lenoir County kids. We grew up in this area,” said Bryant, who attended the old Savannah Middle School when Anderson was principal. “It’s all about giving back and wanting the kids to improve their math skills – not just the kid who’s the smartest but the kid who’s showing the most growth.”

The bikes were purchased with funds raised with the help of fraternity members and from proceeds from Cranksgiving, an event held in Kinston on Thanksgiving night that featured Davis and his band, Dog Star Chaos. “Crank” describes the best form of the Go Go genre of music that Davis’ band performs.

Race to Success served as the beta version of a larger planned competition that Bryant calls Math Madness, sponsored by S.J.G. Greater Sports and involving schools in Lenoir, Greene and Jones counties. That contest will chart students’ growth and achievement in math during the second half of the school year, with bikes to be awarded in May.

Bryant encouraged students to keep their eye on that prize. “Keep grinding,” he told the students. “Keep doing the best you can.”