Students in Illinois Valley Community College’s Mu Alpha chapter of Sigma Kappa Delta, the English Honor Society for two-year colleges, collected new and gently-used children’s books and donated them to Nickie Anderson’s first grade class at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Spring Valley.

IVCC’s student group TEACH Unified assisted with the collection and Jacobs Library added protective coverings to the new hardbound books to increase their durability.

“Because of the generous donations, we have added many wonderful titles to our classroom library,” Anderson said. “I was especially excited about the Spanish books. I have many bilingual students and it has been a goal of mine to build my Spanish library. The students have been exploring the new additions all week.”

SKD faculty co-advisors are Delores Robinson and Dr. Kimberly Radek-Hall. “The mission of SKD is to encourage interest in literacy on campus and in our community,” Robinson said. “Our chapter wanted to encourage the early literacy skills of area children.”