This award recognizes outstanding collaboration between a parent/teacher organization and the school library. Here is Ms. Novogrodsky's acceptance speech!
"My name is Sarah Novogrodsky and I am the librarian at the Haggerty School in Cambridge. I am thrilled to publicly recognize the Haggerty School parent community. Parent support of the Haggerty Library takes many forms. Parents support our Sponsor- a -Book program to grow our collection, they volunteer whenever they can to help with shelving and they hunt down pesky overdue books with a smile.
However, it is the parent organization, Friends of Haggerty, which stands out in its commitment to a thriving school library. The Friends of Haggerty raise funds to support initiatives, which are considered valuable to the Haggerty community. They value enrichment in the form of multiple author and illustrator visits for all students JK through 5th grade. Because of them Haggerty students have had been lucky to meet with Vaunda Micheux-Nelson, Mitali Perkins, Loree Griffin Burns, Jason Chin, E.B. Lewis, Emily Arnold McCully and Paul Janezcko, to name a few.
These visits are exciting in the moment. There is nothing like the thrill of meeting beloved authors and illustrators whose books make us laugh, cry and see the world through different eyes. The visits are also exciting for the stories and dreams they inspire in our students and the connections students make to the life stories the authors and illustrators share with them.
Retired librarian Karen Kosko was instrumental in establishing Friends of Haggerty support for the library. She also initiated the library mural in the stairwells leading to the library. Every guest author and illustrator signs the wall and adds a doodle and message to the Haggerty students. It is truly an amazing array of signatures and it continues to grow thanks to the shared vision of FOH.
Congratulations to FOH for understanding the importance of books in the lives of children, the importance of the people who create these books and the importance of maintaining a flourishing school library.
My job is all the more enjoyable because of Friends of Haggerty –
thank you!"