During the month of October, the early elementary students (grades 1, 2 and 3) participated in a classroom-wide Read-A-Thon. Children read every day, at home and at school, and their parents helped document the number of minutes they read. Each child asked family and/or friends to sponsor them, by making a monetary pledge for the minutes read, with all proceeds to benefit the Atascadero Library and the library expansion project. This was not a reading or fundraising competition, but a way for the children to become enthusiastic about reading while at the same time, helping to support their local library, a much loved resource. Our students raised a total of $2449.00!

Today, the students visited the library for a special annual lesson with Miss Joan, the Youth Services librarian, to learn about picture book writing and drawing techniques. Joan knows better than anyone what it takes to make a picture book popular with young readers and her guidance is invaluable as the children begin to write their own picture books this month. Joan also invited Grenda Ernst, the Friends of the Atascadero Library, President, to meet with the students and accept the Read-A-Thon donation.

The students were also given a tour of the new library. The building for the new library has already been purchased and is located at 6555 Capistrano Avenue. Friends of the Atascadero Library have raised two-thirds of the $1 million needed to fund the cost of construction on the interior of the building. If you would like to donate or learn more about the new library, visit Friends of the Atascadero Library.

Tags: library, read-a-thon, early elementary, donation, fundraising, atascadero