King George School has been coping with a dwindling library and limited budget, but now thanks to a successful bid for the Indigo ‘Love of Reading’ Grant, the school can look forward to some big upgrades.
“The application was a pretty lengthy process,” said Dave Lim, Principal at King George.
“There were 190 applicants across Canada, and we were fortunate enough to be one of only 20 selected; and the only school in Manitoba.”
The grant has netted King George $67,000 over three-years to help update the classroom libraries and main school library, a massive bonus to their current $1,200 yearly budget allotment.
“Qualifying schools are those that are challenged by socio-economic factors that put their children at higher risk. These factors may include a higher than average number of children from single-parent families, families with lower education levels or lower income levels. The children may face cultural, language or other barriers to learning. Any high-needs school that is working hard to foster a culture of literacy despite the challenges has the potential to be a Love of Reading school,” reads the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation website.
“Love of Reading schools receive funding over a three-year period. For each of the three years, the school receives 10 per cent of the funds in the form of cash to spend on any special projects they believe will promote literacy: after-school activity groups; visits by special guest speakers and artists; anything that promotes a love of reading. They receive the remaining 90 per cent of the grant in the form of a credit redeemable for new books and learning materials at Indigo, Chapters and Coles book stores.”

 
The school went through a very extensive application process, involving surveys of the school, detailing two reading programs that already exist at the school, and even creating a video about the school.
“We did some surveys to try and demonstrate the need our school had, surveying staff and students about what we have and what we like and need,” said Wanda Nicol, Literacy Teacher at King George.
“One thing we discovered is that about 80 per cent of the kids here prefer non-fiction books, but in classroom libraries we have only about 20 per cent non-fiction books.”
The deadline for the application was February 17 at midnight, and Lim says the staff was hard at work until the very last minute.
“I remember being in Winnipeg for a conference on February 17, and while I was out getting supper I got a call on my cell,” said Lim.
“It was nearly 7:00 p.m. and the teachers were still hard at work. They put in a lot of effort to achieve this.”
“In the library, we have a pretty even split between fiction and non-fiction,” said Teacher Librarian Linda Friesen.
“But the popular books get ‘loved’ and worn out and damaged. With a limited budget, we can’t replace or update what we need to.”
King George is unique with their massive population of EAL, or English as Additional Language, students. The school has more than 80 EAL students, which make up about one-third of the population.
“Having as many EAL students as we do was a huge benefit to our application,” said Lim.
“We don’t have nearly as many second-language books as we need, so this grant will really help us improve on that.”
“We have so many Spanish students here, but we only had two Spanish books in our library,” said Friesen.
“When we asked students about what kind of books we need, Mandarin and Spanish books were heavily requested.”
In the video King George School produced as part of the application, several EAL students are featured. In a very moving clip, the student says, “My dad works at a factory, and he doesn’t want me to do what he does. He wants me to get a good education and lead a good life.”
Another student said, “I didn’t used to read much in Colombia, but now that I am in Canada I have access to books and my education is getting much better.”
Several students spoke on the video about their dreams in life and why a solid education is the best way to achieve them.
“One of the things we proposed to Indigo was our ‘Bridges into Literacy’ program,” said Nicol.
“It’s the idea that our kids have limited knowledge of the world; there are things they just aren’t as aware of as we would like. This money will help get them into the community and experience things they normally wouldn’t get to do.”
The end-goal at King George is to improve their library to be a community library, where parents can come in for resources as well.
“Kids love coming here, and one of the reasons for that is the passion and effort the teachers all put in,” said Lim.
“We don’t always have as many resources as we would like; the work the teachers put in to get these extra resources is always ongoing because we really believe the kids are worth it.”