ELY - Ely area writers and educators have partnered with Piragis Northwoods Co. Bookstore to bring the Maud Hart Lovelace, Minnesota Young Readers Association youth book awards programs to Washington Elementary School.

Several boxes of reading materials were delivered to Washington School last week.

When Maud Hart Lovelace, a Minnesota writer famous for writing the Betsy Tacy series of books for children, died in 1980, the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award came into being as a statewide children’s-choice book award. The award is administrated under the umbrella organization, Minnesota Young Readers Association.

“For over thirty-five years this award has been a way for children to have a voice about their taste in books, and to have fun doing it,” said local organizer Polly Carlson-Voiles.

“Although this is considered a statewide award, until last year, participation had gone no further north than Cloquet,” Voiles said. “We decided it was time that kids in northern Minnesota joined the fun and made their voices heard.”

Ely’s Washington Elementary school has become a member of the Minnesota Young Readers Association, allowing the votes of Ely’s children to be entered online and included along with votes of children across the state, she said.

“Donations for books, bookmarks and posters come from Lake Country Power, Piragis Northwoods Co., Ely Design Works and from area book clubs,” Voiles noted. “Piragis provides additional generosity by allowing us to order our books at a discount through their bookstore,” she said.

“With this year’s donations, we have ordered sets of books for all three levels, numbering over 110 books that will be donated to the school library, plus bookmarks and posters,” Voiles said. The Ely Library has additional copies of each title nominee for this year, plus bookmarks used by kids to keep track of the books they read.

The original group organizing the book award program included Jordyn Stocks, Mary Groeninger, Polly Carlson-Voiles, Jeanette Cox, Rita Koch, and Chuck Plantz, media specialist for Ely Schools, plus the participation of Ely classroom teachers. Koch, from the Story Portage Board, now administers the program.

For more information, and to donate, go to www. givemn.org/organization/story-portage.