The Hawks Can Read program at Redmond Elementary School received special recognition on Dec. 10 when the Target Corporation donated 400 books to Redmond Elementary’s library and three books to every student in the school.

The program was started in October by fifth- and sixth-grade Quest teacher Cathy Redman, who saw an ad for a Target Corporation-sponsored grant that encouraged kids to read and would donate books to needy children. The program was for kids 13 years and older, so Redman wrote to the company’s CEO. As a result, employees from Target’s corporate office in Minneapolis as well as from the Target in Redmond threw a party for the whole school last Friday to celebrate the Hawks Can Read program.

School librarian Carol Matheson said she usually buys 500 to 600 books a year for the school, so the donation from Target is almost a whole year’s supply. Because of the generous donation, Redmond Elementary will be donating $1,000 of its library budget to the library of its sister school, Albert Einstein Elementary.