August 19, 2004

• The Children's Room has received a $2,000 grant from the Target Stores 2004 Community Giving Program Grant. This grant will initiate the Storytime To Go! program. The Storytime To Go! program will consist of 20 backpacks which will contain two books (one fiction, one non-fiction) on a theme ranging from various fictional genres to science, math and social studies for chilren in nursery school to second grade. For example, The Frog Prince would be paired with How a Tadpole Becomes a Frog. The Children's Department Staff hopes to have the program available to our by late fall, early winter 2004.
• The Children's Room and the Plainedge High School Honor Society students will continue the Book Buddies Reading Program for the 2004-2005 school year.
• The Children's Librarians will be contacting the Art Club of Plainedge High School in September regarding their offer to paint the library windows in a fall theme.
• Our Library was selected as one of the lucky winners this year of the "1 In A Million Contest" sponsored by Scholastic Press for the N.Y. State Summer Reading Program "New York Is Read, White, & Blue". The Nassau County Libraries were entered in the drawing done by Nassau Library System-Youth Services Division. The prize consisted of a wonderful collection of non-fiction and reference materials, cassette tapes and bookmarks. They will be added to our Children's Room collection. Some of the reference materials will belong to a special collection. The Children's Services Department in conjunction with Plainedge High School's National Honor Society are organizing a Homework Help Center dedicated to helping students in the Plainedge community who may need a little assistance with assignments. The Scholastic books plus other sources will be made available to the Honor Society volunteers and the students they help. The planning for the Homework Help Center is still at the early stages. We hope to have it up and running sometime this upcoming school year!