By Amanda Pevey
Elmore/Autauga News
The Airport Road Intermediate School held a Book Blast “Book” Raiser event during the fall and partnered with Books are Fun which put new books in the hands of their students to take home. The Parent Involvement Committee sponsored the Book Blast “book” raiser. ARIS families, friends, and even a few community businesses donated just over $19,000 to purchase these books for the students.
These books are theirs to keep as well. When children are good readers, they are good learners. ARIS loved this new program because it provided a way to build their students libraries at home.
The children in third and fourth grade were so excited to have new books of their own. Books are Fun provided incentives for the students to encourage them to send emails to family and friends requesting donations. They gave away four treasure chests with cash and candy in them. The grand prize was an iPad. Debbie Jones, who is the Media Specialist at ARIS, would check her emails daily to see how much was donated from the day before. She could not believe the amount of generosity and support they received from their families and friends of ARIS.
“I want to thank all of the ARIS families, friends, and community partners who helped us make this happen,” said Jones. “We could not have done it without you. You made our students so happy!”
Books are Fun provided shopping sprees for students who gathered the most donations in both grades. Teachers who had the most participation also received shopping sprees for their classrooms. The ARIS library received an $800 shopping spree with the funds left over from the event, and the library purchased books to put on the shelves for check out so that all students could use them!
When students earned enough donations to get their maximum allowed number of books, any additional donations for that student purchased books for students who were not able to participate or who did not have any donations. When all the donations were in, every student in our school received at least two books to take home.
“The Airport Road Intermediate School Book Blast was a huge success with over $19,000 worth of books purchased for students. It’s exciting to see students this excited about reading and we thank the parents and community for supporting this cause,” said Richard Dennis, Superintendent of Elmore County Public Schools.
From November 1st through December 9th, ARIS students collected cans to be donated to the Millbrook WELCOME center. This year, they collected 1,961 cans. The class that raised the most cans and the overall winner in third grade was, Ms. Clark’s Class with 282 cans. The fourth grade overall class winner was Mrs. Dunkerson with 284 cans. “Thank you to our student council for sponsoring the can food drive and thank you to everyone who sent can items in to be donated,” said Sharon Earl, Assistant Principal of Airport Road Intermediate Schools.
For more information about ARIS, please visit their website at: www.airportroad.eci.schoolinsites.com
See more photos below.
