The Rotary Club of Lockport’s Literacy Committee applied for and received a $5,000 United Way of Greater Niagara Beeman Foundation Grant titled “Celebrate Reading at the Erie Canal” to provide programs and gift bags (books, flyers and crafts) to students attending the Lockport City School District/YWCA Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) and Kindergarten Readiness programs on the topic of the Erie Canal. The project also supplied small book collections to six Little Free Libraries in Lockport on the same topic. Programs for the Kindergarten Readiness classes at Roy B. Kelly School were conducted on Monday, August 4th, featuring author and fellow Rotarian Cyndy Cotten, craft making using packages from Oriental Trading, coloring sheets, and a picture book giveaway. Rotarian volunteers conducted a program rotation of three classes to serve the 48 four and five-year-old students. Gift bags with Erie Canal themed books, crafts, activity booklets, and plastic boats were distributed.
Programs for the Universal Pre-Kindergarten classes at John Pound School were held on Thursday, November 6th. A total of eight story and song programs were conducted and paired with gift bags of books, activities, and crafts for approximately 132 three and four-year-old students.
Book titles were included in backpacks for the summer day camp students from Lockport who attended the Niagara County Fair on Friday, 8/1.
Deposit collections of approximately six to eight books each (featuring titles for adult and middle school readers on the history of the Erie Canal) were distributed to the following Little Free Library sites: YWCA of the Niagara Frontier, Niagara County Historical Society, the canal towpath, the Cornerstone Ice Arena, the Kenan Center, and the town of Lockport Davison Road Park.
