Tammy Markland, director of the Betsy Book Bus for the Elizabethton City Schools, is the latest Northeast Community Credit Union Helping Teachers Teach grant winner.

Markland applied for the Helping Teachers Teach for the Betsy Book Bus, a mobile literacy lab that provides free books to students and families in the Elizabethton City School districts. The bus offers books in all reading levels. The grant will be used to purchase chapter books for grades 3-8 and storage shelves.

“Through independent reading, children gain a wealth of background knowledge about many different things, come to understand story and non-fiction structures, absorb the essentials of English grammar, and continuously expand their vocabularies,” Markland said.

Northeast Community Credit Union awards $300 every month to a classroom to be utilized for classroom needs, classroom activities, and academic enrichment.  Helping Teachers Teach is open to teachers within Carter, Johnson, Unicoi, Sullivan and Washington counties who are members of Northeast Community Credit Union. Area teachers may become members online or at any NCCU location and can download the grant application on the credit union’s website:  www.BeMyCU.org.