This is a guest post from Kristina Kampa, Media Specialist at Fieldstone Elementary and St. Michael Elementary.

I have seen this grant application before, but never thought to apply. My thoughts were it would be too much work since I have never applied for a grant before, I don’t have time, I would never get it, the list goes on. 

I saw the information in the CMLE Newsletter this fall and I figured I would apply this year because we were not given any funds to purchase books other than the money we raised from our book fairs.

So this was the year I was going to sit down and fill this application out for the two elementary media centers I work in. The Google Form for the grant was very simple to fill out.  When I received the email back saying that both of my schools I work in were awarded the grant, I was beyond excited.

I work at two different elementary schools in my district and they both have areas in the collection that need updating, but funds have kept the updating limited. 

I started weeding the non fiction section in one of my schools last year, but realized I couldn’t weed all of the books my report suggested because I didn’t have funds to order new ones.

Our sports team section was in desperate need of more current updated books and I was able to purchase a whole new collection of football books from this grant. I was also able to purchase a few new graphic novels as well which we never can keep on the shelves! 

My other school desperately needed updated picture books for the students and teachers to have for read alouds. With this grant, I was able to place an order for over 50 new picture books. 

The students have been eagerly waiting for these books to arrive and to read them. I am very thankful for this grant and how it allowed me to purchase new and current books for my students and staff at both schools. Thank you CMLE for helping me update our collections this year!