Waldport Public Library director Sue Bennett and her staff were honored at the Waldport City Council meeting, Thursday, November 14, 2019, for their grant-funded project Community Math Outreach.

Following a recommendation by the State Library of Oregon’s Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Advisory Council, the State Library Board recently voted unanimously to award Community Math Outreach the LSTA Project of the Year for fiscal year 2018. 

Through a 2018 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Competitive Grant, funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered by the State Library of Oregon, Waldport Public Library successfully refreshed many aspects of their youth programming over the past year to engage local students ages pre-K-12 and their families in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) related activities, with a special emphasis on math. 

Through a creative new series of events such as Legos and math games, science-focused story times, math competitions, rocket workshops, as well as kids clubs for chess, radio controlled cars and drones, Waldport Public Library is helping redefine the library’s role in a small community. It has also helped invigorate stronger relationships with teachers and administrators at the Lincoln County School District. According to Waldport Library’s Family Outreach Coordinator, Sharon McCrum, “As a library, we keep striving toward literacy for all ages, not just traditional reading. Math proficiency is also literacy. To become confident in math skills is a wonderful thing in a friendly, non-graded environment at the public library.”