News : Students at Tilford and Shellsburg Elementary Schools Raise over $1500 for Books

Students at Tilford and Shellsburg elementary schools raised more than $1500 in donations during a special book fair collection drive held October 3rd-October 7th.

The money was collected for the school through the One for Books® program created by Scholastic Book Fairs. The donations, mostly in the form of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars from students and families, were used to purchase books for the classroom libraries.

All of the money collected was divided among the participating classrooms to spend at the book fair (held October 7th-October 13th), and the class at each building that collected the most was given an additional $75 gift certificate to the book fair. At Tilford, Mrs. Manuel’s kindergartners were the winners with $119.65, and at Shellsburg, Ms. Furlong’s 4th graders also earned the extra gift certificate by collecting $51.97.

“It was incredible to see how quickly the loose change added up,” said Allison Gates, teacher librarian for both buildings. “The kids earned some wonderful new books for their classrooms and our libraries, and were proud to be helping the charities as well.”

Scholastic Book Fairs matches the One for Books contributions with a donation of books to three non-profit organizations that help families in need: Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc., the Kids In Need Foundation, and the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. Each year, Scholastic donates up to one million books through the program.

By conducting the One for Books program, book fair sales at both buildings increased significantly. Over 50% of the total sales was given back to the schools as “scholastic dollars,” or credits to purchase new books, furniture, and equipment from Scholastic. The two buildings combined earned over $6000 scholastic dollars.

Mrs. Gates wishes to thank all of the students, teachers, parents, and community volunteers for helping to make this book fair and the One for Books program such a success, and for supporting literacy at Vinton-Shellsburg.