Francis Elementary receives grant from Laura Bush Foundation

Francis Elementary School recently received a $5,000 grant from the Laura Bush Foundation.

Francis Elementary was one of 219 school libraries in Texas that was awarded a grant from the Foundation. The Foundation awarded $1,095,000 in grants in 2014.

The money will be used to expand, update and diversity Francis’ library.

“We were ecstatic and overwhelmed when we heard we had received the grant,” said Katherine Sells, Francis’ literacy information specialists. “This grant will provide us the opportunity to provide our students with books about people who are like them. We were excited to hear we had received one of the funding.”

The grant application process was administered by the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region with guidance from the Laura Bush Foundation’s Advisory Committee. The grants are funded through generous donations to the endowment from individuals, corporations and foundations.

The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries was founded in 2002 as a fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. Since its inception, the Laura Bush Foundation has awarded more than $11.5 million to schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. In addition to these yearly grants, the Foundation has awarded more then $6.3 million to school libraries in the Gulf Coast region to rebuild their library book collections that were lost or destroyed by hurricanes or storms.

The mission of the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries is to support the education of the nation’s children by providing funds to update, extend and diversify the book and print collections of America’s school libraries. For more information, contact www.laurabushfoundation.org.