Members of Altrusa International of Starke are excited to have recently completed one of their literacy projects for the year.
With the help of grants from the Altrusa International Foundation and the Altrusa District Three Foundation — along with the additional donations, support and work of the members of the local club — Bradford County’s three public elementary schools were provided with books to help stock every teacher’s classroom library for the 2022-23 school year.
Lawtey Elementary finished purchasing its books in October. A special thank you goes to Rebecca Ansley, who took the time to order the 263 new books from Scholastics. Cheryl Canova and Amanda Seyfang visited the school to stamp the books with the Altrusa logo.
The books, which will stay in the designated classrooms for years to come, regardless of who the teachers are, are a mix of fiction and non-fiction for grades K-5. With the need being greater in K-2 due to the growth in the number of students this year at Lawtey, an emphasis was placed on ordering more books for those grades.
All the books can be read and used for the Accelerated Reading tests for students to earn points. In fact, the school day consists of time for students to have access to reading and AR testing. Without enough books in the classrooms, the students wouldn’t have as many opportunities to take these tests.
Students can also check these books out to take home.
After getting a head start with the purchase of 373 books in July, Starke Elementary finished spending its funds in November. Pamela Campbell and Melissa Hines finished up the project with the final purchases from several sources. They ended up with a total of 1,089 books.
Southside Elementary shopped before school began and used all of the funds in one shopping trip to purchase 1,072 books. By completing the purchases before school started, students have been enjoying more reading opportunities since August.
A total of 2,424 books were purchased with the $5,500 provided by the Altrusa donations.
Altrusa of Starke members are excited to see the positive effect this program will have on children’s reading scores and AR test results and hope they will develop a love of reading. Altrusa also plans to apply for more grant funds in the future to continue its support of the schools’ literacy programs.
