Election boost Book Fair fundraiser at OCLAC

The Olney Book Fair fundraiser got a boost this year at the Olney Community Library and Arts Center traffic from the Nov. 8 general election translated into bigger sales, said OISD Trustee Summer Branum. The library holds the Book Fair twice each school year, in spring and fall, as a way to earn money for the elementary school to buy books for classrooms, she said.

Schools that earn at least $3,500 can receive proceeds as cash or “Scholastic Dollars” - the company’s reward currency, the company said. Schools can redeem Scholastic Dollars on “almost anything you’d buy for your school,” it said.

Olney uses the rewards dollars to buy books that teachers keep in their classrooms to supplement the two books students can check out each week at the library, Mrs. Branum said. “The younger kids will buzz through those really quickly and they have to wait until the next week so the teachers have books that they check out to the kids,” she said. Some teachers purchase books for reference in specialized subjects, such as math or science, or to give to accelerated readers, she said.

The election provided a steady stream of traffic for this fall’s fundraiser. “We’ve had a few more shoppers than usual for a Tuesday because of the election,” she said. “Also, we usually have it in school. For the past couple of years because of COVID, the parents haven’t been able to shop at all except for maybe one day after school. So, [today] they get to shop with their students.”