For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
June 5, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a School Receiving a Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries Grant
Our Lady of Perpetual Help School
Washington, D.C.

Photos

12:16 P.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Well, I'm excited to be here today, here in this school, Our Lady of Perpetual Help. We are announcing that 206 schools in 42 states will be receiving Laura Bush Foundation grants for new materials for their libraries. This is the fifth year that we've made grants to U.S. schools, and I'm really excited to get to be at this one. Three Washington, D.C. schools will win the grant, including this one, and then many other schools around the country.

So the Laura Bush Foundation was started in 2001 specifically to help schools, all school libraries buy materials for their students. And we're really excited that now we've given I think over $3 million in the last five years to 600-some odd schools nationwide.

At the same time, just about a month ago, we announced a specific fund for the Gulf Coast libraries. And it's for larger amounts of money, because it's for school libraries that need to be totally rebuilt. And we announced 10 grants there about a month ago -- seven schools in New Orleans and three in Mississippi.

So I'm so excited to be here at this school. I'm glad that they're going to have the benefit of a grant from the Foundation so they'll have a lot of new books in their school library when they come back next year.

So thanks everybody for coming.

END 12:18 P.M. EDT