Book Bus receives grant

Special to The TIMES

Pea Ridge Intermediate School received a grant today from bestselling author James Patterson to support the district's Book Bus. 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. Pea Ridge 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, 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 selected schools.

Last spring, Shannon Brown and Tracy Hager from Pea Ridge Intermediate School applied for the grant to sponsor the Pea Ridge Book Bus. The school will receive $5,000 to help purchase books for the bus that will travel around the community during the summer months. The Pea Ridge Book Bus was started in summer of 2015 by Ashley Clark and Tracy Hager. With the help of teachers and high school volunteers, the bus served approximately 183 students each week over summer break. The teachers said they hope that the number of students served will increase this summer with more community members knowing about the bus.

"These grants are my humble acknowledgement of some of the terrific work taking place in libraries," Patterson said. "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.