DAR chapter awards grant to Pablo Elementary School
Kuilix Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution awarded a $500 grant from the DAR’s Helen Pouch Memorial Fund Classroom Grant program to Pablo Elementary School Librarian Gay Speckert for the 2022-2023 school year. Pablo Elementary is a part of the Ronan School District.
Speckert’s application requested funds for purchasing new chapter books for the elementary school students.
“The average age of the chapter/fiction books in the Pablo Elementary School library is 26 years,” she noted. “Our readers need high interest books to improve their reading skills. With COVID, remote learning, and the learning loss during this time, kids are behind.”
She added that updated library books could help start a new cycle of engaged readers who establish good reading habits that will carry them through life.
Speckert believes that student choice will encourage high interest and therefore increased learning, so she plans on taking suggestions from 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders who have more library experience, as well as from her own research. Three different series from those suggestions will be previewed during the fall semester and then books will be purchased.
“It will be fun and rewarding for everyone involved,” she says. “We look forward to seeing what the students select.”
Pablo Elementary School Principal Ryan Fisher was on hand to see Speckert receive her check.
“Unfortunately, school budgets do not cover everything that is needed at the school, especially in the library,” he said. “We are very pleased to get help from the Daughters of the American Revolution.”
The Helen Pouch Memorial Fund, which finances DAR projects chosen by the Junior Membership Committee, includes the Classroom Grants Program. Two $500 grants are available for each state and the District of Columbia, and come from applications received by the State Junior Membership Committee. Each DAR chapter selects a winner and forwards that application to the state committee, which selects two winners to receive the $500 grants.
Applicants must be classroom teachers for grades kindergarten through 12th grade, endorsed by a local DAR chapter, and must complete the grant award application.
DAR is a non-profit, non-partisan professional organization with chapters in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 13 other countries. The organization is dedicated to historic preservation, education and patriotism for all women who love America and the principles of liberty and equal opportunity for all.
