Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood — Young students in the Ironwood Area Schools will have some extra reading options this upcoming school year, as members of the community recently donated funds to purchase new books.
Enough money was raised to ensure each Ironwood kindergartener through second grader will receive a new book each month throughout the school year, according to district staff.
Kindergarten teacher Kallie Westcott — one of the first teachers involved in the donation effort — said she asked for members of the community to donate $9 to sponsor a child for the school year.
“That way, each child will receive a brand new book from Scholastic every month of the school year,” Westcott said, explaining the Scholastic Book Club has several $1 books for sale each month.
She said she got the idea after seeing friends from college post on Facebook about it.
While Westcott said she was only expecting a handful of people to donate, her entire class sponsored in roughly two hours.
“I didn’t think it was going to go over (as well as it did), it’s huge,” Wescott said. “I did not expect that response.”
Seeing the success she had, Westcott said other teachers asked for sponsorships and in roughly two days the over 160 students in those three grades were sponsored.
The books are going to students at a crucial age Westcott said, as they are beginning to learn to read.
“Unfortunately in our area, a lot of families can’t afford to purchase books for their students every month. So this is huge — getting the books into the kids hands so they have a love of reading right away from a young age,” she said.
While the community response was fast and overwhelming, Westcott said the book donations are just the latest in a long list of examples of residents stepping up to provide for students in the district.
