BY CHERYL CANOVA
Altrusa of Starke
Altrusa International of Starke received a grant from the Altrusa District Three Foundation in May for $500 and another grant from the Altrusa International Foundation in June for $4,000.Both grants were designated to provide books for the classrooms in our three public elementary schools.
In addition, to this funding the Altrusa International Club of Starke will contribute $500 and the membership will collectively give another $500. That’s $5,000 for books in the classrooms that will stay in each classroom, so when new teachers come in, they will have a substantial library of books for their students to read in class and take home to read as well.
The funding was divided between the three schools based on enrollment.
Starke Elementary got things started with the purchase of 373 books before school started, and were featured a few weeks ago on the front page of the Telegraph. They still have a good amount of funding left to purchase more books.
Southside went shopping two days before school started. They sent a teacher for each grade level to select their books and spent all of their allocated funds, except for about $2. They selected 1072 books with the funds that Altrusa provided, and each lead teacher for each grade, gladly put them in a buggy and rolled them to their classrooms to divide among the teachers after the attached pictures were taken.
Lawtey has not been shopping yet, so we hope to have some photos to share of their shopping for books in the near future.
All of the books that are purchased are stamped with a “Donated by Altrusa International of Starke” stamp by a couple of club members. Currently the total number of books purchased to date is 1,445. We should be over 2,500 books donated when all of the purchases are done.
The Altrusa International Foundation is committed to the service goals and objectives of Altrusa International Inc. It sole purpose is to be an avenue through which Altrusans can assist Altrusa Clubs to carry out programs of community service and assistance to those in need. Starke Altrusans are appreciative of the additional funding from both our District Three Foundation and International Foundation, that allows us to be able to provide more books for our schools this year.
One of our main projects this year focuses on literacy, and we hope to see our students reading more and improving their reading scores. Along with this donation, our Starke members will continue to read in the classrooms during the 2022-2023 school year. If you would like someone from Altrusa to read in your elementary classroom at Lawtey, Southside or Starke Elementary Schools, please contact Cheryl Canova at [email protected].
