Research shows that children, on average, lose one month of reading skills over the summer. A major contributing cause for this slide is that many children simply don’t have regular access to books during the summer months. As a result, when kids return to school in September, teachers find themselves re-teaching skills and concepts that students had mastered the previous spring. Our team partnered with Hedberg Public Library in order to help them expand their outreach efforts to students in the summer. Our project was to find and repurpose a vehicle into a bookmobile; the library would then sustain the project after our graduation. Research revealed that many cities use repurposed buses as their bookmobile vehicle of choice. However, we were able to get a decommissioned ambulance donated from the City of Janesville Fire Department at no cost. Our team worked to transform it with bookshelves and, with the help of Fetch Graphics and our sponsors, a wrap for the outside of the vehicle. We also coordinated a book drive to collect books for the project. After our presentation today, we will turn the bookmobile over to Hedberg Public Library. The Hedberg Public Library Bookmobile will be seen throughout Janesville in the coming months!

1. Hedberg Public
Library Bookmobile
LDA Project 2016:
Bringing the library to you!
Jessica Grandt-Turke, Andrea Levine, Kyle Mair, Stephanie Pajerski, and Brent Sutherland

4. The Research
Low-income students lose more than two months in reading
achievement over summer, despite the fact that their
middle-class peers make slight gains (Cooper, 1996).
More than half of the achievement gap between lower- and
higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access
to summer learning opportunities (Alexander et al, 2007).

5. The Research
By the end of 6th grade, lower-income children who lose
reading skills during the summer are on average 2 years
behind their peers (Alexander et al, 2007).
As a result, low-income youth
are less likely to graduate from
high school or enter college
(Alexander et al, 2007).

7. The Vehicle
Donated by The
Janesville Fire
Department to
become the new
Hedberg Public
Library
Bookmobile
(Above) Members of the Janesville Fire Department & Leadership Development
Academy group pose with the newly donated ambulance

8. The Transformation

9. The Transformation

10. Wrap design
and installation
completed by
Fetch Graphics
The Transformation

11. Forecasted Costs
Cost of vehicle = FREE!
(Thank you Janesville Fire Department!)
Costs to refurbish vehicle ~$700
Cost of vehicle wrap - ~$2,300
Annual operating costs (gas and maintenance) -$3,000
Books - through the Hedberg Public Library circulation and
community donations
Staffing through HPL

12. Total: $11,275.00
$4,900 Sponsorships
$1,375 Go Fund Me
$5,000 Vehicle

13. THANK YOU to our sponsors and partners
City of Janesville - Janesville Fire Department
St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital and the Dean Clinic Janesville
Baker Tilly
Fetch Graphics
ANGI Energy Systems
Janesville Education Foundation
Why The Fuss? Technical Solutions
School District of Janesville
Janesville
Retired
Educators
Association
(JAREA)

14. The Transformation: SDJ Book Drive!
More than 1,000 books
were collected from all
12 elementary schools
in the School District of
Janesville!

15. Bringing the Library to YOU ~ proposed route
Mondays ~ Riverside Park
Tuesdays ~ Hedberg Library Programs
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays ~ Adams,
Jackson, Lincoln, Washington, and Wilson Elementary, and
Bond Park Pavilion

16. Weekend Community Events
Farmer’s Market, National Night Out,
Tallman Festival, Rock Aqua Jays Shows...
Future schedule will be available online at:
http://hedbergpubliclibrary.org/bookmobile.

17. Publicity
IN THE
NEWS…
LINK to article
We need your
help to
PROMOTE the
Bookmobile.

18. Thumbs Up!
http://www.gazettextra.com/20160509/thumbs_updown_for_monday_may_9
Spreading the
word will get
books in the
hands of kids
all summer
long!

19. Challenges/Obstacles
Finding a vehicle:
What we did: Started looking on
wisconsinsurplus.com
Talked to Bus Company,
Hedberg
Library, and Fire
Dept.
Timing/Scheduling for team members:
What we did: Planned meetings in advance
Stayed after LDA
sessions

20. What we learned
The first day of class: Real Colors
“We learned that it’s okay not to be good at everything: as part of a team,
we can play to our strengths and accomplish so much more.”
“We learned how a big project can come together quickly
with visionary leadership and the support of a community.”
So THANK YOU….

21. THANK YOU to our GoFundMe Donors
Katrina Bell
Meghan Bleidorn
Trish DeFever
Sara Ditzel
Theresa Douglas
Mitch Fanning
Amanda Haffery
Helene Ogden
Jody Jenkins
Joe Jimenez
Michelle Kahl
John Levine
Jason Lund
Thomas Montrone
Linda Ross
Celestino Ruffini
Crystal Schuring
Tracy Sengupta
Robert Smiley
Jeremy Slemmer
Kerry Swanson
Catherine Szudarski
Michelle Sirinek
Andrea Turke
Anonymous Donor

22. Special Thanks to:

23. Thanks to YOU: the Janesville community!
“We're all working together;
that's the secret.”
-Sam Walton

24. The reward
“When I was a kid, to me [the bookmobile]
was more important than the ice cream
truck.
I remembered how much joy I experienced
because of the bookmobile coming into the
housing projects. Because of books, there
was nowhere I couldn’t go. As a result, my
world view even as a kid was pretty
large….
The bookmobile made that all possible for
me."
-Frank X. Walker, Kentucky’s poet laureate

25. Want to support
the project?
Go to:
GOFUNDME.COM/HPL
BOOKMOBILE
Checks can be mailed
to the library and made
payable to Hedberg
Public Library
Foundation

27. Questions