Shelves at Upland Park Elementary School's library will see a $30,000 infusion of books that will satisfy students' appetite to read.
The Nanaimo-Ladysmith district school was one of five B.C. schools receiving money from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, which aims to put books in the hands of Canadian students. Mike Ingalls, Uplands Park principal, said he and teacher-librarian Melody Barta teamed for the application. It will provide varied reading material for students, he said.
"We're looking at, of course, purchasing a lot of books, and the other part of it is we have a plan for, what we're going to call a travelling library," Ingalls said. "This will be something that will be on a cart of some sort, and will be taken around to different classrooms just to help share and spread the joy of reading through the new books that we have."
The principal said students visit the library weekly and have the chance to learn about new items in the collection, have a story read to them and borrow books "that pique their interest."
"Books that are really popular right now seem to be the graphic novels, non-fiction books that have a lot of pictures or diagrams in them, and then novel collection, so there's different novel sets that are quite popular," he stated.
Ingalls said the school will receive $10,000 annually for the next three years and was complimentary of Barta's devotion to literacy.
"She has a deep passion for the library here," he said. "She is continually working to make improvements and when she heard that it was possible to apply for the grant, she basically became the driving force behind it, and we worked together to put the application together and submitted it, and we're so lucky and fortunate to get picked."
In a press release, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation said it was pleased to grow literacy at Uplands.
"This year’s grant recipients represent a diverse cross-section of communities and backgrounds," Rose Lipton, foundation executive director, said in the press release. "We’re proud to partner with an incredible group of schools and educational organizations to help children and educators achieve their literacy goals and get more kids excited about reading."
In all, B.C. schools received $125,000 from the foundation this year.
