Library Foundation for Sarasota County receives $10,000 grant to support young learners
MakeDo construction kits encurage hands-on STEAM learning at Elsie Quirk Library. The kits were purchased by the Library Foundation with a $10,000 grand from the Harry Shapiro Charitable Foundation.
The Library Foundation for Sarasota County has received a $10,000 grant from the Harry Shapiro Charitable Foundation to purchase 400 MakeDo To-Go Kits that were distributed free of charge this summer to young library users.
The “grab and go” kits encourage young engineers to imagine, design and create with a basic cardboard box, promoting hands-on learning opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
The kits are an activity of the Creation Stations that can now be found in all Sarasota County branch libraries, thanks to the Library Foundation, the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation and other donors.
“I am grateful to the Harry Shapiro Charitable Foundation for supporting this innovative way to bring Creation Station activities into our patrons' homes,” said Renee Di Pilato, director of Libraries and Historical Resources. “The kits are a perfect activity for summer learning and preparing for the school year ahead.”
The hands-on “makerspaces” allow library users of all ages to imagine and create using 3D printers and a wide variety of other tools for free.
“We’re grateful to have this support from the Harry Shapiro Charitable Foundation and greatly appreciate their strong support of the libraries’ STEAM programming,” said Library Foundation executive director Alisa Mitchell, an early literacy specialist who has worked with multiple Sarasota nonprofits since 2001.