(from left) Elementary School Principal Megan Armstead, Harrisburg Keystone Rotary Club President Jim Rodgers, retired Steelton-Highspire Elementary Principal and Rotarian Stephanie Acri, Superintendent Willie Slade, District Librarian Jennifer Feldser, and Rotarians Becky Boone and John Abel.
The Harrisburg Keystone Rotary Club has funded more than 550 new nonfiction books for the Steelton-Highspire School District library, a purchase totaling more than $10,000.
Club President Jim Rodgers, a 1992 district alumnus, contacted District Librarian Jennifer Feldser last February to ask how the club could help. The district is in a recovery plan, leaving the library only around $500 for more than 800 students, with much of the nonfiction collection dated to the 1990s.
The Rotary committed $5,000 and asked alumni, teachers, and friends to match it. Donations have reached nearly $11,000. Capstone Publishing, a Pennsylvania-based distributor, is supplying the books prelabeled with barcodes and call numbers.
“When I got that email, I cried,” Feldser said. “This update to our nonfiction collection would have taken us years to complete under our current budget.”
The Rotary will also launch a monthly program this school year in which community members read to students in classrooms. Additional funds will expand the fiction section and support book fair purchases.
Anyone interested in contributing to this project may contact Keystone Rotary at hbgkeystonerotary@gmail.com or visit hbgkeystonerotary.org to donate via PayPal