TOPSHAM — School Administrative District 75 bus driver Don Sanders was recently awarded the 2016 Joan McGovern Education Support Professional of the Year Award from the Maine Education Association.

The award was for Sanders’ program Bus Book Bags, where along with Williams-Cone School Principal Randa Rineer and Topsham Public Library Children’s Librarian Mariah Sewall, he was able to implement a program that put bags of library books on all of the school buses for children to read and share. Now the program is being replicated across the state.

The program has not only ensured that literacy skills are being developed beyond the classroom, but has also led to informal mentor relationships between older and younger children as they read together.

FMI: 207-725-1727, www.topshamlibrary.org.