The Rotary Club of Conifer's Mountains of Books "Peaking" an Interest in Reading literacy campaign surpassed the $30,000 dollar mark last week when the club's Literacy Committee made yet another mountain area school and library reference book donation to Conifer High School/Jeffco Public Library on April 9th. The Conifer Rotary Club has partnered over the last year and a half with the Colorado Independent Publishers Association's 501 (c) (3) Education and Literacy Foundation (CIPA ELF) to distribute new reference books to Colorado schools and libraries that have been donated to the organization by publishers. The month of March is Rotary's designated Literacy Month and the donation to Conifer High School was planned to take place in conjunction with a CIPA Publishing Conference scholarship award presented on March 25th to CHS Sophomore Jessica Zook. Zook, who is a staff writer for the CHS Lobo school newspaper and the President of the CHS Rotary Interact Club, was awarded a $500 scholarship to attend the 2-Day CIPA College in Denver on March 27 & 28. As a result of a scheduling conflict with those making the book donation, the actual presentation of the books to the library was postponed to the first week in April.

Susann Guilluamin, CHS/Jeffco Public Library Manager, said that the amount of books that were donated last week by the CIPA ELF and Rotary club constitute more than her entire budget that she has to buy new books for a full year! The value of the new reference books that were donated on April 9th was over $2700 and over the last year, the library has received two previous donations from the Rotary/CIPA ELF partnership valued at over $7000. Although donated to the Conifer High School/Jeffco Library, Guillaumin said that "the books are available to any Jeffco student or resident through the county's intra-library transfer system and other mountain area residents through a statewide, inter-county transfer program so really the whole state benefits from these donations!"

The books and encyclopedias were published and donated to the CIPA ELF by Salem Press, Sage Publications and ABC-CLIO. Some of the titles include a six volume Survey of World Literature, two volume Encyclopedia of Stem Cell Research, two volume Religion and Education in the United States, Conflict Between India and Pakistan, Culture and Customs of the Arab Gulf States, Gun Control Reference Book, and many more.

Sue Marinelli, Jeffco School Board Member for District 2 who was present for the donation said that "the donated reference books are an extremely valuable addition to our students' resources. The donation keeps new and important subjects in front of and available to our students and residents and helps to defray the county's costs when acquiring new books especially now when budgets have to be cut."

In keeping with the theme of the Mountains of Books program, The Rotary Club of Conifer's Literacy Committee partnering with the CIPA ELF has now donated over $30,000 worth of new books to schools and libraries in the Rotary club's mountain area community. Beneficiaries of the book donations include Platte Canyon High School and Park County Library, Evergreen Public Library, Conifer High School/Jeffco Public Library and Summit County Public Library.

The Rotary Club of Conifer meets every Tuesday morning at the Mountain Resource Center from 7-8am and you can learn more about their activities at www.RotaryConifer.org. The Colorado Independent Publishers Association and their Education and Literacy Foundation meets the third Saturday morning of each month. For more about the organization and their programs visit www.cipabooks.com