Boise Sunrise delivers books to every student at Koelsch Elementary
One of the club’s favorite annual projects aligns quite well with our advocacy for youth and for literacy. Boise Sunrise delivers dictionaries to third graders at 12 different elementary schools in the Boise School District each school year. And then we cap off that shameless advocacy for readers and reading with a targeted delivery of books to every student at a chosen school. This year, that school was Koelsch Elementary. Here’s how it works.
In the fall, schools often host book fairs (Do you remember these from your own school days??) and we initiate our quiet collaboration with the school at this time. After the students have visited the fair, teachers ask each student to identify their favorite book. That list of names and specifically chosen books is then shared with us at Boise Sunrise Rotary. We work with Idaho Book Fairs to purchase these books to keep this business local. Rotarians Jennifer Poole and Jan Welch head up this effort.
On Leap Day 2024 (February 29!), we assembled a crew of ~20 Rotarians to deliver these books. There were 16 classes to visit and ~330 books to deliver. Most of the students had long since forgotten about that “favorite book” question that was posed to them months ago but we saw a delightful look of recognition on many of their faces when we handed each one their new book. On top of these books, we also delivered a no-strings-attached check for $500 to the school librarian.
This is a project model that is very easy to replicate, we believe. It was great fun for everyone participating that day as we took along many of the administrative staff of the school to help us find the right classrooms and to have that one-on-one moment with students getting a new book. We love to support reading and our motto for that day was “Readers are Leaders”. We strive to leave it better than we found it and this project consistently meets that standard!
