District gets donations for 1,600 children’s books

Posted 11/7/19

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District gets donations for 1,600 children’s books

Posted Thursday, November 7, 2019 5:54 pm

Employees of Warren County R-III School District and SAF Holland packed more than 1,600 reading and work books into cloth bags Tuesday, May 9, for students to take home over the summer.The school district is giving the books to kindergartners and first-graders so that they can keep up their reading skills, Assistant Superintendent Jill Schowe said.Many books were purchased using funds donated by SAF Holland, while other books have been donated, Schowe said.Members of the SAF Holland Corporate Social Responsibility team were at the district’s central office in Warrenton on Tuesday helping fill the bags. They planned to fill 420 bags each with three books, one workbook, flash cards and a reading list.Students tend to regress in terms of reading ability while they’re away from school, so the district is incentivizing summer reading, Schowe explained.Students who complete their reading lists over the summer will be rewarded with a picnic at Binkley Woods and Spector Lake Park, she added. Students who show that they’ve studied flash cards included in the bags will get a McDonald’s coupon.This is the first year the district has done a summer reading program.SAF Holland donated $15,000 to the school district this year, $3,000 of which went toward the reading program, Schowe said. Another $2,000 went to the district’s Care to Learn program, and $10,000 will be used for technology.

Chris Dieckman, left and Trina Barks, center, of SAF Holland work with Warren County School District employee Debi Ringling to prepare bags of books for students to take home over the summer. Not pictured are Mary Jones of SAF Holland, Jill Schowe and Hillary Schowe of the school district. Record photo/ Adam Rollins.