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With the help of the High Point Community Foundation, Fairview Elementary is adding 575 books to its library.

The foundation gave $2,500 from it’s Principals’ Fund to Fairview as a local match for a $10,000 Library of North Carolina grant. The foundation helped the school out with a similar grant five years ago.

“This is the type of project we love to be involved in,” said Paul Lessard, High Point Community Foundation president. He said the school population includes those who don’t always get access to the materials or books they need. “As a first-generation college graduate, I know there’s never anything better to put in kids’ hands than a book.”

Mary Nifong, the school’s media specialist, worked months preparing a four-year collection-development plan, which is required for the grant. The plan identifies the school library’s weaknesses and areas that need updating to meet curriculum and community needs.

Nifong’s plan included more nonfiction books, specifically in life sciences; updating reference books; replacing lost and worn fiction books; and adding multicultural books.

“The goal was to get more books into the hands of children,” principal Rhonda Copeland said. The school’s focus is to improve students’ literacy and love for reading. Offering a wide variety of books helps that goal.

Copeland has challenged the students to read 15 or 20 minutes each day. The school is working hard to make sure each child has something at home to read.

“Just to have such a great influx of new books allows our students more choices in their selection of reading materials,” Nifong said. “We’re giving students greater access to all types of reading materials, and we know the more they read the better readers they become.”

Nifong said some students don’t have books at home, so building a strong library helps those students get books into their hands. “We want a strong library to create lifelong readers.”

“Ms. Nifong did a great job in finding books for the children, even ESL children,” Copeland said. The school also lets parents check out books, and students often take boos home for brothers and sisters.

The school has a high turnover among the students and sometimes books never make it back into the library. So this grant also helps resupply the library with needed books.

“Though there is a lot of turnover, it’s worth it if kids are reading,” Lessard said.

“We don’t have a PTA that has thousands of dollars,” Copeland said. “Without the foundation, we wouldn’t have been able to write the grant or get the money. It’s very meaningful to us for them to do that.”

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com