Horizons on the Hudson Awarded $6,800 Grant

NEWBURGH – Horizons on the Hudson Magnet School received a $6,800 grant from The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries.  More than $831,000 in grants will be distributed to 130 school libraries across the country for the purchase of books and reading materials.

“The love of books – holding a book, turning its pages, looking at the pictures, hearing stories read out loud – is key to developing a child’s love for learning,” said Laura Bush.  “The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries supports school libraries and the programs that encourage reading and learning.  With a new and improved library, we can ensure that our children will have happy learning experiences at school and at home.”

To commemorate the occasion, the school lit a symbolic “Torch of Knowledge” which will be at the fo-refront of the school’s literacy transformation. For the remainder of the school year, the torch will make the rounds in classrooms, at school and Newburgh Free Library events, other district schools, at district and com-munity sports events, at the Board of Education office, as well as throughout the community including local government offices.

“Books are an integral part of the resources that provide equitable access and a window to the world for our children.  They feed insatiable appetites to explore, build contagious enthusiasm, stimulate the urge to act, and open opportunities to facilitate change.  The Laura Bush Foundation grant will become a vehicle that helps our children continue on their journey to becoming effective and imaginative life-time users and creators of in-formation.  I’d like to share a mantra that I created for my students:  Read until there are no more books.  Seek until there’s no place else to look.  Pause sometimes to take it all in, then pass it on again and again,” said Mi-chell Jumpp, Horizons School Library Media Specialist.

Special guests for the event includedAssemblyman Frank Skartados’ Representative Christopher Whit-son, Orange County Legislator Chris Eachus, City of Newburgh Councilwoman Karen Mejia,Town of New Windsor Councilwoman Patricia Mullarkey, Newburgh Free Library Youth Library Services Department Library Assistant Bonnie Sakow, City of Newburgh Police Department’s Lieutenant RichardCarrion,and Newburgh Enlarged City School District’s Director of ELA/English K-12 Kristen Harris.

The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries provides grants of up to $7,000 to our Nation’s nee-diest schools so they can extend, update, and diversify the book and print collections in their libraries with the goal of encouraging students to develop a love of reading and learning.  Since its inception in 2002, it has awarded over $13.4 million to more than 2,500 schools across the country.  In addition to the annual grants, the “Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative” in 2006 providednearly $6.5 million to school libraries af-fected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to rebuild book collections lost or destroyed in the storms.

In 2014, The Laura Bush Foundation transitioned from the Community Foundation for the Na-tional Capital Region in Washington, D.C. to the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, where it is managed as a restricted fund.

More information can be found at www.laurabushfoundation.org.