Bedford Minuteman Trust’s Holiday Luminary Sale Funds Scores of Books for K-5 Students

December 10, 2021

~ Submitted by Andrea J. Salipante, Bedford’s K-5 ELA Curriculum Coordinator

For the fourth consecutive year, the Bedford Minuteman Trust has made a generous donation in support of the Bedford Public Schools. This donation continues to allow the Davis and Lane Schools the opportunity to strengthen our all-school reading program, supplement our instructional bookrooms, as well as build our mentor texts libraries.

Editor’s Note: The books are funded by sales of holiday luminary kits at Chip-in Farm between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Scroll down for details, and how to acquire your luminaries.

Our process over the last four years has been that by early spring, we have purchased all of our texts and had Trust representatives come to our schools and see what their donation has afforded us. For the 2020-2021 school year, we made a small, intentional shift in our ordering process. After a year of unprecedented learning, we knew that we needed to make adjustments, which began with taking inventory.

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The 2020-2021 school year took on many learning models. Hybrid for all, in-person for some, fully remote for others, and then in-person for many. Although we changed learning models, what we didn’t change was our commitment to having authentic reading materials in the hands of our K-5 Bedford students. All students were afforded the opportunity to take books home in book bags—to practice reading skills, build background knowledge, as well as share books for families to enjoy together!

Knowing that thousands of books were sent home over the course of the year, for extended periods of time, we needed to anticipate loss and damage. To that end, we moved our Bedford Minuteman Trust ordering process to late in the fall in order to best evaluate our needs. Once done, we worked on replacing some titles, ordering new titles for mentor texts, and as always, purchasing sets of 12 to be added to our instructional bookrooms. The books we purchased continued to focus on American History, American experiences, American citizenship, American government, and civil/human rights.

We could not have replenished, restocked, and added to our bookrooms, in the manner that we have, without the generous support of the Bedford Minuteman Trust. We have attached a few pictures of the titles that were purchased. We realize that the photos don’t do justice to reflect the Trust’s donation, but at this time, we are still unable to have visitors come to our schools. We look forward to more stable times where you can come to our schools, view the books, and chat with teachers and students about how your donation supports their teaching and learning.

What funds all these books? Luminaries!

Each luminary kit is available for $15 at Chip-In-Farm on Hartwell Road. The kit consists of 12 candles, 12 bags, and a bag of sand.

Luminaries have become a beloved Christmas Eve tradition in Bedford. Sponsored by the Bedford Minuteman Memorial Scholarship Fund, proceeds from luminaria sales will fund books for the libraries in each of Bedford’s schools. Imagine how welcoming Bedford will look with luminaries lighting the edge of the road. on Christmas Eve.

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