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Kashechewan school gets special grant from Indigo Love of Reading

A fire destroyed their library books earlier this year
2019-12-03 Kash School Indigo SUPP
St. Andrew's School in Kashechewan is receiving $10,000 for new books from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation after a storage facility housing the library books burned down. Supplied photo

After a Kashechewan school's library books were lost in a fire, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation is stepping up with a special grant. 

According to the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, they were contacted by St. Andrew's Elementary School's literacy resource teacher about a fire at the storage facility housing the library books while a new school was being built. Staff were hoping to be part of the Adopt a School Program. 

"While this falls outside of the Foundation’s typical granting programs, the Foundation was moved by the story and will be supporting the school’s library rebuild through a transformative grant," said Rose Lipton, Indigo Love of Reading Foundation executive director. 

Love of Reading is giving the school a $10,000 literacy grant to help rebuild the library. 

"This initiative will be a major step forward to ensuring that all students will have access to new and engaging books to support their education and foster a lifelong love of reading. The Coles location in Timmins will be volunteering their time to help the school curate their collection and ensure they find the right books to support the interests and needs of children in their community," she said. 

The school has received nearly half of the books.

“The first shipment contained a diversity of titles to suit the many interests of the young people in Kashechewan, with a focus on Indigenous authors and Indigenous language books. The remaining books will be delivered throughout the coming year, and will be selected by the school community with input from students and teachers, based on their interests and needs," said Lipton.

According to the foundation, the old elementary school was deemed unsafe "because of mouldy classrooms, jammed doors, electrical problems, faulty alarms, and more." The community declared a state of emergency last August and moved the elementary students to the high school. A new school is being built and is expected to be complete this month.

To support the Love of Reading Foundation, you can make a donation in-store at Indigo, Chapters and Coles locations or online at loveofreading.org