East Helena Library Receives Sherlock Holmes Grant
June 7, 2018 (Helena, MT)—Lewis & Clark Library Director John Finn is pleased to announce that the East Helena Branch of the Lewis & Clark Library has received a 2018 Jan Stauber Grant from the Beacon Society. Finn explains that the intent of the grant is to “introduce young people to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about his famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.” East Helena Branch Library Assistant Andrea Eckerson applied for and received the grant and plans to use the funds for a Sherlock Holmes inspired mystery lock-in for the middle school patrons, which will take place in December.
The Beacon Society awards the grants in honor of a wonderful Sherlockian, Jan Stauber. Stauber, a New Jersey middle-school teacher, who visited classes for a decade in the guise of Sherlock Holmes to encourage students to discover the joys of reading. Stauber, who died in 2005, was the first winner of the society’s Beacon Award, given annually to one teacher whose exemplary educational experiences fulfill the mission of the society.
The Stauber Grants have been given to creative educators and librarians in the USA since 2004 and Canada since 2012. In 2017, over twenty projects were funded. Previous awardees have used Sherlock Holmes to teach English, literature, history, mathematics, deductive reasoning, forensics, and critical thinking to students from elementary through high school.
The grant intends to promote similar creative work by giving financial help to public and private school teachers, organizations, libraries, children’s museums, counselors and others who develop literary curriculum projects and other educational experiences encouraging young people to read, primarily by introducing them to the stories about Sherlock Holmes.
East Helena Branch Librarian, Diane Potter, is excited about receiving the grant, “Those attending the middle school lock-in will have a lot of fun dressing up, solving mysteries, and playing games and puzzles. It is a very creative grant and I just know that Andrea will execute it in a fine fashion.”
The Beacon Society is a not-for-profit affiliate of the Baker Street Irregulars, the New York City-based group of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934.
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