COMOX VALLEY B.C – Airport Elementary School in Comox has received $25,000 from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation.
According to a release from Indigo/Chapters, the Love of Reading Foundation’s grants provide high-needs schools with an opportunity to grow their libraries, and place more books in the hands of children in their communities.
Around 30 schools across Canada receive the grant annually and two of those schools are on Vancouver Island, Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw School in Port Hardy, and Airport Elementary School in Comox.
Al Johnson, principal of Airport Elementary School in Comox, said the funds will help with their literacy project, which includes a summer reading program.
“What the research tell us is that there’s this thing called the summer slump where kids will leave for summer and come back two months later and really have lost ground in reading,” said Johnson.
“So a lot of the books we are purchasing is to support that, and part of that is sending home five to six books at the beginning of the summer with each and every early primary student, and they practice those books over the summer.”
Johnson added that the money will also help a second part of their literacy project.
“The second part of the literacy project is play space learning, and the goal of this literacy program will be to develop a deeper understanding of our world, and specifically Vancouver Island as our home.”
When the cheque was presented to the school, Johnson said the local Chapters bookstore brought over 150 books for the students to choose from.
“I think we have about 140 students in the school and they brought about 150 books, so each child got to pick out one book and take it back to their classroom library.”
He said the grant money will help create a whole new library for the school in the future.
“It will absolutely change our library. I foresee three years from now we will basically have a new library,” said Johnson.
For more on the Indigo/Chapters Love of Reading Foundation grant, visit their website here.
