MANOR, Texas —
Students in Manor are now getting more access to free books thanks to two statewide organizations partnering together.
Manor Independent School District installed three "Little Lockers" at some of its schools to help improve literacy and students' access to books. The lockers were installed at Oak Meadows, Presidential Meadows and Blake Manor elementary schools.
The nonprofit Texas Yes, which provides free school supplies across the state, provides the lockers and maintains them. To help sponsor the lockers for Manor ISD, Texas Yes partnered with not-for-profit Greater Texas Credit Union (GTCU).
Rachel Bond with GTCU explained that it was important for the credit union to help give kids access to books and fill the gaps during school breaks when they can't get to a library.
"I think that a lot of people forget that it's not easy to just go to a Target or an H-E-B and buy a book whenever kids need a book. I think we forget about the fact that books are really a luxury for a lot of communities and a lot of people these days," Bond said. "So you're getting books that are passed down or maybe they're passed around the neighborhood. So getting a free brand new book can be sometimes just that tiny little extra thing that incentivizes and motivates those kids to to do and to learn."
The lockers have all kinds of books that appeal to different ages but will also be stocked with different crafts and other activities to help keep students active.
Bond hopes that increasing access to books will increase the student's desire to read.
"Reading is just so valuable because you get to travel to far off places that you could never go on your own. You get to be the princess. You get to be the dragon slayer. You get to be the person that's conquering the world," Bond said. "So in reading the imagination of these kiddos just can really thrive and they get to dream big to do kind of whatever they want to do and be whoever they can be when they when they open the pages of a book."
The lockers at Manor ISD are the first-ever lockers to crop up in Central Texas.