The money was raised through "Battle of the Valleys," a competition between Grand Valley and rival Saginaw Valley State University, to see which university could raise more money for a local charity within one week, said Student Senate's Anne Marie Carson.
Nancy Patterson, chair of the Reading Language Arts Program at Grand Valley, helped select this year's charity. She said there are less than 100 paperback books in the Burton Middle School library. Though the library collection has roughly 7,500 books, most are outdated. She said the size of the library is less than half of what it should be.
"Students use Burton's library all the time," said Patterson. "They are hungry for books, but there simply aren't enough books to feed that hunger. We cannot expect students' literacy rates to improve if we cannot supply them with books to read."
The middle school years are the exact time when students lose interest in reading, said Patterson. The biggest factor in literacy is a well-stocked library.
President Haas was taken "Haastage" in a fundraising event during the Battle of the Valleys / Photo by Courtney Newbauer
