Students in third grade at Russellville Elementary School will now have access to additional reading material thanks to a donation from one of the University of North Alabama’s honor societies, Beta Alpha Psi.

Russellville resident Mandy Barksdale, who works at UNA, said the organization had always looked into doing a book drive but had not done one in the past.

“We felt like with Black History Month and Read Across America that it would be a good idea to really bring those together,” Barksdale said. “We tried to make everything focused around diversity and inclusion.”

The organization donated more than 100 books to Russellville Elementary School and Colbert County High School.

Barksdale said Beta Alpha Psi made an online wish list for people to shop from and encouraged each member to ask people to donate.

RES Principal Kristie Ezzell said she is thankful for Beta Alpha Psi and the work they did to get these books for the students.

“Those are a lot of nice books, and for us to buy all of those would have cost us quite a bit,” Ezzell said.

Barksdale said the best part about a book drive is the books added up quickly because most people did not have a problem donating enough to purchase one book.

“It has just been great to give back to the local community,” Barksdale said.

RES Assistant Principal Tiffany Warhurst said the books are going to be divided among the third-grade classrooms.

“They didn’t know we were getting these, so it is going to be a great surprise for them,” Warhurst said.