Students will be able to read all summer long
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
MILO — Thanks to a $4,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, students at Penquis Valley Middle School each had the opportunity to order $20 worth of books to read over the summer. The books, about three titles per individual, were handed out to the grade 6-8 students as part of the year-end awards assembly in the gym on June 15.
“I had written a grant that is going to provide books to each student,” Library Media Specialist Gayle Peirce said to the audience of middle-schoolers, teachers and parents. “I dubbed it ‘I Choose to Read.’ The premise of the grant is to offer books to all middle school students. It was very important to me to enable them to choose their own reading material.”
“Over 400 items have been ordered,” Peirce said. “Individual students’ orders have been bagged and tagged and are ready to go this afternoon.”
The selections were made through the Scholastic Book Club and Peirce said 200 books were ordered with leftover funds. She said through various club promotions an additional 200 titles were added to the delivery and students were able to pick from these selections the next day for more home reading.
A group of “high school helpers” then wheeled out eight carts and wagons with books for each homeroom.
The assembly also featured the announcement of the yearbook dedication and the presentation of a gift for each eighth-grader.
The Penquis Valley Middle School yearbook is dedicated to sixth-grader Zak Mills. In January, Mills was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his right wrist, and he has been undergoing treatments in the months since. Mills was able to participate in the ending assembly with his peers through Skype.
Principal Jeremy Bousquet stepped to the podium to conclude the program for “the last hurrah and the last thing we are doing to do today.” Bousquet said several months prior the Maine Savings Federal Credit Union approached him after a financial literacy fair at the school.
“They asked what else could they do to help the students,” Bousquet said, mentioning an idea was T-shirts for the students to help promote their school.
Maine Savings provided a gift for the eighth-grade as “every single eighth-grader will walking away with a shirt to walk into high school next year,” Bousquet said. The red and white T-shirts, featuring two of school’s patriotic official colors, say “I’m proud to be a Penquis Patriot” on the front and have Maine Savings on the back.
Bousquet joked that he wished he had a T-shirt cannon to reach all the students in the bleachers, but he threw some of the wrapped shirts to students sitting closest to the podium.
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