The Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) recently awarded the 2014 Bookapalooza Program to three libraries, one of them being our own  Talahi Community School in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

“The award includes a variety of materials from books to DVDs and audiobooks. These materials have been received at the ALSC office from publishers for selection committees to evaluate for awards and notables consideration. To make room for the next year’s publications, Bookapalooza was created to infuse three collections with new materials for children age birth through age 14.

The Talahi Community School has plans to use the Bookapalooza collection for many innovative programs that include a reading outreach project with a nearby retirement community, the STEM program for the St. Cloud School District and the newly created reading garden where the children will have an alternative place to read when the weather is nice. The school serves a diverse PreK-5 population of 518 students with much collaboration from the St. Cloud community.  The children who attend Talahi are at the 93-percent factor in free and reduced meals and more than 30 percent of the children come from single parent homes.”

CMLE staff contacted Talahi school media specialist Sara Martini to find out more…

“… the thanks go to Talahi’s foster grandpa, John Bowden, who wrote the grant application. The books came in 27 huge boxes and contained over 1,350 items, worth around $24,000. How exciting!” All of the books are hardcover and were published in 2013 or 2014 and will be available for students to check out.

Excerpts from this post came directly from the ALA press release at http://tinyurl.com/mf6vnq7

If you are part of a library/school media organization in Central Minnesota,  you may have a “feel good” story you too would like to share. These regional stories always have great appeal. Please send your ideas or stories to cmle@stcloudstate.edu and thank you!