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Community Corner

PTO Book Fair

The Rumson PTO is pleased to announce the completion of yet another successful Scholastic book fair! This week-long event is run at Deane-Porter Elementary, where the gym is transformed into a “bookstore” with literary offerings for children and adults of all ages.  Over the week, every class – pre-k through 8th grade – comes to the fair to shop and purchase books for their own home libraries.  Children and parents also have the opportunity to purchase books to build the classroom libraries for teachers.  

Children and their parents are treated to a variety of activities over the week, including visits with Clifford, a Rainbow Loom workshop, a story time for the youngest grades, a bake sale and shopping with loved ones one evening. This year, teachers even got involved in the fun, with some doing story times on Saturday and others facing off in a coin collecting competition to see who would do the “silliest event.”

For the last several years, the Rumson PTO has dedicated the lion’s share of the profits from this event to both updating and expanding the Deane Porter and Forrestdale School Libraries.  In the last two years alone, the Rumson PTO has donated nearly$25,000 Scholastic Dollars to the School Libraries to purchase new books for the libraries.  More than tripling the allotted school budget for book purchases, these funds allow the librarians to make purchases throughout the year to keep the libraries current and ensure that the books are appealing to the student body.

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The continuing success of the book fair is directly linked to continuing volunteer support – from both parents and students.  The Rumson PTO would like to thank Abby Daly, Nancy Pearson and their committee members, all of whom did such a wonderful job coordinating and organizing all aspects of this special event.

In a climate where libraries are shutting down due to budget constraints, our school libraries are growing every year because of the continuing success of the book fair and the PTO’s dedication of funds to this pursuit. The PTO sincerely hopes that the annual book fair will continue to encourage a lifetime love of reading and a sense of what a truly wonderful community the children live in.


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