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First Lady’s Hurricane Fund Makes First School Library GrantsHurricane-damaged Gulf Coast school libraries will receive $500,000 in grants from the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries to help them rebuild, the First Lady announced May 3.Seven public and private schools in Louisiana and three in Mississippi will be the first to get grants from the foundation’s Gulf Coast Library Recovery Initiative. They will also receive magazines and books from Time Inc. and Bertelsmann AG, the Associated Press reported May 3. “These grants will bring books back to school libraries,” Mrs. Bush said at St. Bernard Unified School in Chalmette, Louisiana. “Rebuilt libraries will help bring children back to their schools. And rebuilt schools will bring families back to the revitalized Gulf Coast.” The First Lady, a former school librarian, said that 1,121 schools in the region were damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “The basic cost of building a book collection for an elementary school library—and this is just materials, just books, not shelving, not computers—is about $50,000,” she noted. “And the cost for a good, wide secondary school basic library is usually over $100,000.” Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore announced that the company would give St. Bernard a full set of Life magazines going back to the 1936 first issue to replace a set destroyed by Katrina. “There’s no amount of money you could put on that collection at this point. It’s an unbelievable gift,” said principal Wayne Warner. “It made me cry,” added Assistant Superintendent Beverly Lawrason. The library also will receive $75,000 from the Laura Bush Foundation. Posted May 5, 2006. |
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