55.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Bullet aid money funds local library endeavors
Last month, both the East Rockaway Public Library and the Lynbrook Public Library received bullet aid money from the state.
Bullet aid is a type of targeted funding given to schools and libraries. The East Rockaway Public Library received $5,000 in aid and the Lynbrook Public Library received $7,500 in aid. Assemblyman Brian Curran and Assemblyman Ari Brown met with East Rockaway Mayor Gordon Fox and Lynbrook Mayor Alan Beach to deliver the money.
“The East Rockaway Public Library is so grateful for the NYS Bullet Aid grant from Assemblyman Brian Curran and Assemblyman Ari Brown,” Donna Miller, director of the East Rockaway Public Library, said in a release. “The grant is intended to support our children’s area.”
Miller specified that she will use the aid for new iPads in the Children’s Room that contain educational apps. She also noted that the money will go towards items for the Library of Things, which would be of interest for children and families. Such items include oversize lawn Jenga, a bubble machine, and binoculars.
“We are going to make STEM lending kits for elementary and middle school children, including books paired with interesting manipulatives including snap circuits, measurement materials or other Science Technology Engineering and Math ‘challenges’,” Miller said. “We also intend to lend Early Literacy Kits for babies and toddlers and their families, including some of the popular manipulatives from our in-person early literacy programs.”
Miller said that because of the aid that Curran and Brown helped supplied for the library, she will be able to provide multisensory, educational, and entertaining experiences for the very young, school-age children and their caregivers, and families.
“I will always support our local libraries, they are places of learning and imagination for people of all ages, which is why I am ecstatic to present the East Rockaway Library with this bullet aid,” Curran said. “I know they will put it to good use for the residents of East Rockaway, and I can’t wait to come back and see how they have used this money to improve the experience for everyone.”
Robyn Gillon, director of the Lynbrook Public Library, said that she will be using the bullet aid money towards new chairs in the library’s meeting room. The chairs currently in the library are from 1992 when the library underwent construction. Gillon said that the chairs could really use an updating.
“We generally try to make the upgrades from bullet aid money a little more exciting than this year,” Gillon said. “In the past, we used the money to upgrade our public access internet computers, we opened a playground, a garden area, and that was all funded by those monies.”
Gillon explained that she tries to use the money towards something that is not always budgeted for. She said that the money provides the library funding for additional services.
“I know they (Lynbrook Public Library) will put it (bullet aid money) to good use for the residents of Lynbrook, and I can’t wait to come back and see how they have used this money to improve the experience for everyone,” Curran said.
