GILROY
– Luigi Aprea is one of six schools chosen to receive a donation
of 295 books from Casa de Fruta today.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Luigi Aprea is one of six schools chosen to receive a donation of 295 books from Casa de Fruta today.
A total of 1,770 books will be given away as part of a contest that generated nearly 5,000 entry forms from local teachers, parents and students. The six winners were randomly selected by drawing names from a hat, said Suzan Zanger Slater, a partner of Casa de Fruta.
Casa de Fruta wanted to find a way to benefit nearby schools, she said.
“We just wanted to give them away,” Slater said. “Because of all the cuts of different funding for schools, we wanted to reach out to schools in some way and have an impact. And through books is what we figured would be most helpful.”
Casa de Fruta selected and purchased the elementary-appropriate books from Scholastic, a children’s book publisher.
“There is a real different assortment of books that kids would be interested in,” said Slater, who helped in the selection process.
The contest ran during the month of October. Everyone was invited to enter, only once, by indicating which school they would like to receive the books. Luigi’s winning entrant was parent Wendy Noboa.
“I was very excited,” Noboa said. “My daughter’s teacher is new to Luigi Aprea, and she has very limited resources, so most of these books will be going to her classroom. So we are very excited for her.”
The rest of the books will be used in the school’s library.
Several schools, including Luigi, entered in the contest during field trips to Casa de Fruta for its fall season and Halloween activities. Noboa and other parents on the field trip filled out entry cards during a trip to the park’s pumpkin patch.
Noboa will represent the school at a presentation of the book donations this morning. Her daughter Erica, however, will have to go to school.
Slater said Casa de Fruta hopes to make a habit of getting involved in nearby schools.
“This is the first year, but it’s definitely something that I believe we’d like to continue,” she said. “Either books for schools, but in someway definitely continuing the tradition of reaching out to community schools.”
The drawing was open to schools in Santa Clara, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, and fliers were sent to all of the eligible schools.
Other winners included Barden Elementary in Salinas; Carden Academy, a private school in Morgan Hill with grades kindergarten through eight; Hunt Elementary in Newman; Sunnyslope School in Hollister and R.M. Miano Elementary in Los Banos.
