Illinois State Library

PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL LITERACY FESTIVAL

In an effort to expand on a community Literature Festival that would be an outreach program to expand participation for school students, administrators of St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 applied for a federal grant in order to piggy-back on a very popular local festival featuring authors and storytellers. The St. Charles Public Library District had for the past five years been the original sponsor of the festival.

Beginning immediately after the conclusion of the 1997 St. Charles Literature Festival, representatives of the school district began exploring avenues to incorporate the students into the spring event. The Illinois State Library administers the federal Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) program. In the summer of 1998, the school district applied for an LSTA grant that was awarded in the amount of $5,000 the following November.

The award enabled the school district to devote an entire week to promoting the value of reading. The new goal would be to advertise the event as a combined St. Charles Literature Festival under joint sponsorship by the local library and the school district. The week included visits by authors and storytellers in classrooms as well as many public events designed to capture the interest of the general community.

Two school district staff librarians volunteered to co-chair the 1999 festival, twenty other school staff members and five public library staff co-chaired sub committees. Many parent and community volunteers assisted with the festival by providing local transportation and meals for the authors. Almost all of the volunteers for the 1999 festival were the same who were on board for the original Festival in 1997.

The Literature Festival, the first one covering an entire week, was held April 19-23, 1999. The St. Charles School District and the St. Charles Public Library District and the public at large hosted 20 authors and eight storytellers. A total of 10,000 students were directly impacted by the grant. More than 600 parents and students came to the St. Charles Public Library to purchase books and get their books autographed by the authors.

The $5,000 LSTA grant was part of an overall budget of $53,000. The $48,000 local contribution was made up of donations from various parent teacher organizations, student groups and local businesses. The grant paid for author stipends.

Grant Project Director Mike Hill said, "I would say you are rarely, if ever, going to find enough time in a busy school year to devote and entire week to reading. There is a real need to reinforce the importance of reading to students, parents and the general public.

"We have less and less time in our busy lives today," he said. "All day long both kids and adults are bombarded with video games, MTV, cable, the Internet and the PC. There is very little time for any kind of reading, especially leisure time reading. From time to time we need to take a few minutes and reemphasize just how important reading is to all of us.

"We also hope this annual festival will encourage students to explore fully the creative process that goes into writing.

(For further information regarding this grant contact: Mr. Mike Hill, St. Charles Community Unit School District 303, Administrative Offices, 201 S. 7th St., St. Charles, IL 60174. Telephone 630-513-2278 e-mail mikehill@st-charles.k12.il.us)