Children’s Literacy Foundation Awards $25,000 Year of the Book Literacy Grant to Ten Elementary Schools in New Hampshire and Vermont

Waterbury Center, VT — The Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) has selected ten elementary schools in New Hampshire and Vermont to receive its Year of the Book grant for the 2017-2018 schoolyear. The grant is intended to promote a culture of literacy within schools and encourage a love of reading and writing among children. Eligible elementary schools demonstrated a high percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch and scoring below state standards in reading and writing, as well as enthusiasm for strengthening literacy in the school community. The Year of the Book grant provides $25,000 in literacy support to each selected school, including new books for the local public and school libraries, as well as school classrooms; multiple exciting literacy presentations and workshops by local authors, illustrators, and storytellers; mini-grants for classroom literacy projects; family literacy celebrations; professional development opportunities for teachers; and ten new books for each student to choose and keep over the course of the school year. The Year of the Book grant began in 2012 by serving six schools, and expanded to serve nine in the current schoolyear. CLiF is delighted to be able to add a tenth Year of the Book school for the 2017-2018 schoolyear.

The Year of the Book recipients for 2017-2018 are:

·      Alburgh Community Education Center — Alburgh, VT

·      Ashland Elementary School —  Ashland, NH

·      Campton Elementary School — Campton, NH

·      Canaan Schools — Canaan, VT

·      Dr. Norman W. Crisp Elementary School — Nashua, NH

·      Molly Stark Elementary School — Bennington, VT

·      Peterborough Elementary School — Peterborough, NH

·      Salisbury Community School — Salisbury, VT

·      Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes School — Burlington, VT

·      Unity Elementary — Newport, NH

The above elementary schools were selected from twenty applicants this year. CLiF Program Director Meredith Scott says, “CLiF welcomes ten new schools; They show great enthusiasm from the whole staff to integrate literacy into all of their activities and into the fabric of their day-to-day school life while building the home to school connection through reading and writing.”

This year, CLiF also added the option for an additional $1,000 in literacy support following each school’s Year of the Book grant to help schools continue to build upon their literacy momentum sustained during the grant period. In a time when many public schools face uncertain budgets, CLiF’s financial support helps schools offer engaging learning materials and programs to encourage literacy development. This week, all current, incoming, and past Year of the Book school representatives are invited to attend CLiF’s fifth annual Year of the Book literacy conference to share ideas and past successes from their Year of the Book grants and learn more about literacy development from professionals in the field. CLiF is looking forward to launching exciting partnerships with each of these schools to encourage a love of reading and writing amongst children in communities across New Hampshire and Vermont.

About the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF)

CLiF is a non-profit organization whose mission is to nurture a love of reading and writing among low­-income, at-­risk, and rural children up to age 12 throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. Since 1998, CLiF has supported and inspired nearly 200,000 young readers and writers through five literacy program grants and has given away almost $5 million in new, high­-quality children’s books. For more information about CLiF, visit www.clifonline.org.