Burton Middle School library to be dedicated

After more than a year of planning and fundraising, a newly stocked library will be dedicated at Burton Middle School in Grand Rapids.

More than $30,000 was raised to purchase new books for the library. Grand Valley State University’s Student Senate raised more than $19,000 through “Battle of the Valleys” last fall, a competition between Grand Valley and Saginaw Valley State University. Another $12,000 was collected by Grand Valley’s College of Education.

The dedication ceremony will take place at Burton Middle School in Grand Rapids on Monday, March 26, at 2 p.m.

Before the fundraising campaign, the library had less than 100 paperback books and while the library contained a total of 7,500 books, most were outdated.

“The most important component in developing and increasing children’s literacy is access to books,” said Nancy Patterson, chair of the Reading Language Arts Program at Grand Valley. “We cannot expect students to grow a love of reading and become life-long readers if they cannot find meaningful reading materials in their classrooms and their school libraries. I am so proud of the GVSU community, and especially the College of Education, for its support of this library.”

Patterson, along with GVSU Student Senate President Frank Foster will join Grand Rapids Public School officials at Burton Middle School for the dedication.