Jonas E. Salk Elementary School received a grant today from bestselling author James Patterson to support its School library. In addition, Scholastic Reading Club will match each dollar of Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and other materials for their classrooms. Jonas E. Salk Elementary School was selected from 27,924 applications for funding grants.
As part of an ongoing effort to keep books and reading a number one priority in the United States, bestselling author James Patterson, together with Scholastic Reading Club made a commitment to help save School libraries nationwide. This year alone, Patterson personally donated $1.75 million to School libraries nationwide, with grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 allocated to each of the 467 Schools.
"At Salk Elementary School, we encourage reading as a way to explore and make sense of the world around you. Books take you places and help enrich your imagination. While we will use some of our funding to encourage the love of reading by buying “high interest” books - books that our students are requesting, we also want our students to be able to pick up a book and be inspired. We will use a portion of the grant to buy stories and biographies of people that will motivate and encourage our students to be a positive change in the world. We will also use the funds to better develop our nonfiction area, so students have more books to reference areas of interest and perhaps learn more about subjects where their experience may be limited.” Hara Halkias, Second Grade Teacher
“These grants are my humble acknowledgement of some of the terrific work taking place in libraries,” says Patterson. “Here’s to communities supporting School libraries. Here’s to a country that makes reading a priority. Here’s to flourishing libraries and to a joyful holiday season!”
“It continues to be inspiring and motivating to work with James Patterson to support School libraries across the country,” said Judy Newman, President of Scholastic Reading Club. “Jim’s unwavering commitment to helping children lead better lives rich with books is transformative. Scholastic is thrilled to be working in such an effective partnership.”
In the first-ever partnership of its kind, Patterson joined forces with Scholastic Reading Club to administer funding applications to their network of 62,000 Schools and 800,000 teachers. Applicants were asked to fill out an online application posing the question. “what would your School library do with $1,000 to $10,000?” The full list of grant recipients is available online at www.scholastic.com/pattersonpartnership.
Any U.S. School with students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade was eligible for a grant. Patterson hopes that the high volume of requests will raise awareness for the problems facing School libraries today. To learn more, go to mediaroom.scholastic.com/scholasticreadingclub and follow #PattersonPledge on social media.