Williamsburg Regional Library
Awarded the 2001
Lee Elliott Memorial Grant
The Williamsburg Regional Library (WRL) in Williamsburg, Virginia has been
selected to win the second annual Lee Elliott Memorial Award. The
Millbrook Press, on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, created the Lee
Elliott Memorial Award of $10,000 to be awarded annually to a library which has made a major contribution to the young people of its community
through the utilization of the media center facilities and collection.
Ms. Noreen Bernstein, Youth Services Director at the Williamsburg Regional
Library and longtime children's advocate, submitted the winning application. "When a library is as busy as WRL, it is easy to overlook
those who cannot, or choose not, to use it. To alleviate this problem,
WRL has developed an extensive outreach program."
The variety of programs which serve the entire community - both inside and
out of the library - caught the attention of the judges.
The innovative "Feed Me a Story"
outreach program takes place in the local Ukrop's supermarket and provides children with the opportunity for a
storytime, nutritional snack and the chance to earn free books. Originally funded by the 2000
Loleta D. Fyan Grant
from the American
Library Association, "Feed Me a Story" reaches families who may never
visit the library or who are not included in the regular outreach sites.
The partnership between the library and Ukrop's will continue, bringing
the program to new families every week.
Dean Sculthorpe, general manager of the Williamsburg Ukrop's store said,
"We are pleased to partner with the Williamsburg Regional Library on such
a worthwhile cause - that of children's literacy."
Some other examples of WRL Youth Services' programs include:
Booked for Breakfast - library staff go to local elementary schools to
read to students
Booked for Lunch - library staff go to local elementary schools to
read to students
Bookends - library staff work with remedial reading students
at local middle schools
Wheel of Reading - summer program for teens with a live auction
Book Bowl - competition for scholarship money
Mother Goose Mania - competition for third grade students
WRL works with preschools, twelve elementary schools, six middle schools,
five high schools, and more than 500 home-schoolers in coordinating these
programs.
According to Millbrook Press Chairman
Howard Graham, "The Williamsburg Regional Library is exactly the type of facility that Lee Elliott dedicated
his professional life to support. Lee took great satisfaction in getting
good books into the hands of children and worked tirelessly to keep
libraries vital and important in young people's lives. We are very pleased to celebrate Lee's memory by honoring Ms. Bernstein and her
colleagues for their outstanding devotion to promoting literacy and library use through innovative programs that both empower and educate."
The $10,000 award will be presented to the Williamsburg Regional Library
in Williamsburg, Virginia in October. Applications for the 2002 Lee Elliott Memorial Award are due by April 30, 2002. Please call
1-800-462-4703 x 3008 for an application or click
here.
