At Village Elementary School, staff believes in creating a warm engaging learning environment. Teachers are always looking for ways to include the Gorham community by offering opportunities to enrich students’ lives.

As the Gorham community continues to grow, staff needs to be creative in accessing space. Sometimes looking right outside the window is all you need. And that’s just what Village did. They began with a vision of a cozy outdoor reading space for all Village students to embrace and love reading.

The project started with the creation of a page on www.donorschoose.org. In less than a week, it was fully funded. When the word got out about the project the collaboration began with the slogan, “From little things, big things grow.”

Some of the community supporters included: thirteen donors from Donor’s Choose; Dan Dupuis; Erin Webber; Gorham Educational Foundation; Gorham Sand and Gravel; Hammond Lumber; Heather Whitaker (GMS); Linda Faatz and Gorham Gardening Club; and Megan Dermody.

Village staff felt so fortunate to have so many dedicated families and little helpers work on this project. Village students will look forward to using this outdoor reading area for years to come.