Mona Elementary students learn life lessons with library fundraiser

MONA, Juab County — Back to school means back to lessons for students at Mona Elementary in Juab County, who were able to see their new library for the first time.

“Do you remember the Dewey Decimal System?” the school librarian asked the students. “Start with letter A right there all the way to letter Z.”

However, perhaps the biggest lesson students learned is why the library looks so new.

“Yeah, it looks amazing!” said Teleia Paongo.

Paongo was one of the 5th graders on the student leadership council in the 2022-2023 school year. She understood the grant that allowed the school to buy new school doors, like the one for the library, to make things safer in an emergency.

However, she and others wondered why the whole library should not be replaced.

“The walls were brown, and the carpet looked very old and like the bookshelves were ruined,” Paongo said.

It turns out the school district didn’t have enough money to do that. So, students and teachers decided to try and do it themselves and ask for donations.

“I didn’t know if people were going to donate, but it all turned out to be just fine,” Paongo said.

Students wrote letters to local businesses and people in the community explaining why they needed the money.

“It kind of made me nervous because when we were writing letters to businesses, it’s a little like, it made me nervous,” said Kolten Lewellyn, who was also on the student council in 5th grade last year.

Their efforts sure did work.

“As of today, we have raised $41,900,” said Brandi Webster, the principal of Mona Elementary. “In Mona, the heart of the community is the school. We have so much support from the community members and the parents here at Mona Elementary. I was a little questioning that we were able to earn that much money, which I shouldn’t have doubted that.”

Students even helped install the new bookshelves this week. There is even enough money left over from the donations to buy new chairs and furniture for the library.

Even though the 5th graders who started the project last year are in 6th grade this year at a new school, they stopped by to see the result.

“I wish I was still in this school this year,” Paongo said.

Webster is certainly proud of her students, not just for what they raised but also for what they learned.

“It taught me that like you should never give up and you should try hard even if times are tough,” Lewellyn said.