Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 04/02) - Nearly 50 Grade 6 students gathered for storytime in Mildred Hall school Wednesday, oblivious to the fact that the man reading to them had just donated $350,000 to Northern school libraries.

K.C. Williams, senior vice president and director of Imperial Oil, was in the NWT to announce the Calgary-based corporation would be donating the money to the seven NWT school boards over the next four years to be used for library programs.

"Literacy is really the foundation to learning and employability. There is no more important gift we can give children to equip them for the future than literacy. It is the key to opening minds and opening doors of opportunity," said Williams.

$50,000 for Yellowknife1

Yellowknife School District No. 1 will receive $50,000 in the first year and superintendent Dr. Judith Knapp said the board is determining how to distribute the money.

"We'll probably distribute it by K-6 to population," said Knapp.

She added see viewed the funding as an excellent step to supporting the importance of literacy and books.

"Unlike other people, I don't believe computers are going to take over children's research and reading. I think books are important," she said.

DiAnn Blesse, principal at Mildred Hall, said she expected her school will receive approximately $5,000 from the first phase of the initiative.

"You can buy a lot of books for that. It will be a nice boost to our collection.

Blesse said the staff and faculty will discuss how to spend the money collectively.

"I know right now we need non-fiction books," said Blesse.