TOMS RIVER, NJ — For the second straight year, the Toms River Regional School District has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program.

The grant is used to emphasize reading by planning community events built around a book with the idea of getting students, parents and the community at large reading and sharing about the book. The Toms River schools were one of two public school districts to receive Big Read grants last year. That grant of $14,000 was used to create a monthlong program that focused on the post-apocalyptic novel "Station Eleven" and used it to draw parallels to Superstorm Sandy, culminating with the fifth anniversary of the hurricane's destructive impact on New Jersey.

This year's grant is for $15,000 and will focus on "The Things They Carried," a collection of short stories. The Toms River schools are one of 79 grant recipients nationwide for the 2018-19 school year. "This past October, NEA Big Read proved to be not only a fun and engaging way to promote literacy, but a means of uniting people throughout Toms River," Superintendent David Healy said. "This award for the coming year further cements our involvement in Big Read and our capacity to host wide-scale programs, and it's also on the continuum of our efforts in student achievement, literacy, and community partnerships."



This year's Big Read will begin in mid-February 2019 and culiminate on March 29, 2019, which is Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day. "The Things They Carried" is a collection of interconnected Vietnam War stories by author Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam War veteran. The book has sold more than 2 million copies and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The book was chosen in part because Toms River boasts the largest population of veterans in New Jersey, and the school district hopes to use the program to build intergenerational bonds between students and vets.

The district also aims to spark challenging and instructive conversations: "The book's challenging themes and raw prose will help our students and families identify and confront the weights we all carry, and develop stronger literacy skills and deeper interpersonal connections," the district said in its grant application.

"What seems to appeal to the NEA and Arts Midwest about our approach is the fact that we really strive to relate our selected novel to Toms River," said Tonya Rivera, the supervisor of high school English and language arts for the district. "This past year we successfully connected a contemporary, post-apocalyptic novel to Superstorm Sandy, and next year we plan to use 'The Things They Carried' not only to discuss the broader issue of war, but the figurative weights we carry as a township, and as classmates, families, and friends. This will open the door to exploring challenging and personal topics like mental health and addiction."

Rivera and Christy Downs, the Big Read co-director and supervisor of English and language arts for the intermediate schools, are planning events including a mini-poetry festival for students based on the novel, family book clubs, and collaborative events with the Ocean County Library such as a "Music of the Vietnam Era" showcase. "Toms River has almost 7,000 veterans," said Emily Mazzoni, Ocean County Library's principal librarian of teen services. "We look forward to this Big Read as a literary bridge between generations. Our programs will center around the parallels of the 1960s generation and today's generation, including teen empowerment, engagement and advocacy."