Story and photos by Don Steen.
Students at Lincoln Trail Elementary had a bit of excitement last week as Principal Ben Lawalin and other faculty wheeled in boxes full of books to take home. While there were plenty of thrills as hundreds of students across the school tore through packaging like a scholastic Christmas, these surprise books were not entirely unexpected.
The student body has been participating in a “Book Blast” fundraiser through the organization, Books Are Fun. This initiative allows students to seek sponsors from their families and the community, earning donations to go toward new books for themselves and their fellow students.
The goal for each student was to raise $100, which netted those reaching this benchmark at least 10 new books to take home and enjoy. However, extra funds raised at the school helped cover the cost of additional books for those students unable to raise that amount.
Lawalin reported more than $30,000 was raised at LTE. Even with a student body of 375, that’s enough to ensure everyone went home with at least four new books to pad their collections at home.
“This is to build libraries in the homes of our students,” Lawalin explained. “Every single kid is going to get at least four.”
All the books delivered to the school through the program have been vetted by librarians to be appropriate for each student’s grade level. Some books tended toward the academic, but others represented some of the more popular contemporary works of children’s fiction or addressed topics of interest to younger age groups. With every student heading home with at least four or even more new books, there was plenty of excitement to go around as classrooms huddled together to compare their hauls or get a head start on some early chapters.
