While ARPA-funded projects like infrastructure repairs or safety improvements may have cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, smaller grants have also funded important improvements.

For example, a grant of $1,158 given to the Mason Public Library enabled it to purchase materials it otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford. A majority of the materials purchased were for inclusion in  “Positive Useful Participation” (PUP) Packs, which are small children’s backpacks containing themed activities and related books that children can check out just like they could any other library material. 

PUP Packs available at the Mason Public Library include “I’m Special and Unique,” which includes activities related to identity and self-confidence; “Math & Measurement,” which includes measuring tools and related books; and “Seasons of the Year,” which teaches children about weather and climate-related topics.

Additionally, there are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) kits from educational company Lakeshore that focus on engineering and problem-solving. Each kit is based around solving problems related to classic fairy tales, including the “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “The Three Little Pigs” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The kits include a story card, lesson plan and building materials for children to use toward engineering a solution to a problem.

“Our book budget would not have allowed us to ever, ever purchase these,” said Library Director Judy Forty. “There’s just no way we would have been able to put these together.”

Forty said she got the idea after noticing other libraries adding STEM-related books and activities to their catalog for children to check out.

“Mason is so small, I feel as though in order to have us be equal to other libraries around us, we needed to add that – we were lacking that STEM piece,” Forty said. “Once I found out we were going to receive the grant, I decided that would be the best way to spend the money – to get something we were not able to afford in any other way.”

Forty added that it was important the activities were versatile and could be used more than once, so children could take them out multiple times and get a slightly different experience each time.

“I was looking for things that were going to be useful over a long period of time, rather than a one-and-done type thing,” she said.”

Forty said that the response to the new educational items has been positive, and that they are having the impact on the community she was hoping for.

“The response has been absolutely positive; they’re checked out all the time,” Forty said. “Whether the children enjoy them once they get them home – I think they do. They’re always the last thing to come back, sometimes overdue,” she said. “But it’s been a wonderful response. I’m so glad that we have them. We have young parents moving into Mason, so it has done what I have hoped, which is continue. They’ve held up, they continue to go out, they continue to be usable.”