Twenty lucky Ducks got help with textbook costs last month, courtesy of The Duck Store and Enrollment Management.

Roger Thompson, vice president for Enrollment Management assisted to The Duck Store in handing out $5,000 worth of academic supply cards to students. Twenty students received a card in the amount of $250 each to be used toward textbooks and other academic supplies.

In 2005, the Duck Store’s board of directors—made up of students, faculty and staff—decided to give more money from textbook sales back to students for course materials.

This proposal became The Duck Store’s Book Awards Program, which now supplies free course materials for up to 30 students each term. Recipients are chosen at random as they wait in line to pay for their course materials.

The Duck Store created the supply card to give students more flexibility to purchase supplies throughout the term. The pre-paid, reusable card is specifically designed to purchase academic and course-related materials only.

The card allows the Book Award recipients to purchase their course materials as they need them, at their own discretion. It’s also become popular with parents, who can purchase the card for their child and refill it as necessary online.

As of April, The Duck Store has given out more than $135,000 in book awards.

- from The Duck Store