Dixon seventh grade English teachers were happy and surprised this week to accept a donation from the Etienne Literary Club, a local service organization.

“It was so great that this service organization wants to help our school promote reading,” said Leann Moody, English teacher and literacy specialist.

The check was presented to Principal Jarod Sites by Etienne Literary President Lonnie Fullmer.  Mr. Sites thanked the club for their generous donation and assured them the funds would be put to good use providing books for students. The project was organized by Gail Jacobs, a retired Dixon teacher who wanted to support reading and literacy at the school.

The donation, which was a service project for the group, will be used to purchase books for outstanding readers.  Those books will include several copies of signed author books.  The signed author books are part of an ongoing program organized by Mrs. Moody.

For the past decade, she has worked to bring  authors into the school to talk with students about reading and writing.  “This is a great experience for our students to meet writers and get excited about writing themselves.”

In addition to authors, she works with other teachers to promote Battle of the Books, library reading programs and read a thons at the school.

This year Mrs. Moody brought four local authors to Dixon who donated their time and talents to talk and work with students.  Authors included Sarah Larsen and Kathryn Purdie, both on the New York Times Best Selling List.  Matthew Kirby, author of the Assassin Creed books, also talked with students and Frank Cole worked with students on writing.  Some 40 students attended the 90 minute workshop where this local author helped them plot their own picture book.

Students of Mrs. Moody went on to create digital picture books which were submitted to the Utah State Department of Education and will be donated to first and second graders throughout the state.  This project organized by Christelle Estrada encourages young authors to share their skills and gets elementary students excited to read.

We would like to again extend a huge THANK YOU to the Etienne Literary Club for their generosity!