Stone Bridge High School Awarded ALA’s 2025 Jaffarian Award for Historical Artifact Footlocker Program

CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) has awarded its 2025 Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award to Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia, for its Historical Artifact Footlocker Program.

The $5,000 Jaffarian Award, supported by ALA’s Cultural Communities Fund, recognizes excellence in humanities programming in school libraries that serve grades K-12.

Selected from a record-breaking number of applications, Stone Bridge High School is the second high school to win the Jaffarian Award. In 2024, the Jaffarian Award included school libraries serving grades 9-12. Previously, only school libraries serving K-8 were eligible.

The Historical Artifact Footlocker Program, begun at Stone Bridge High School by school librarians Laura Channing and Erin Curry, has grown into a county-wide initiative. Footlockers are available for loan to all 37 secondary schools in the district, reaching over 4,000 students in its first year.

The program provides hands-on learning through circulating footlockers containing artifacts from World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War. Designed for 6th–12th grade social studies classes, the footlockers connect to History and English curricula and are tied to the Virginia Department of Education curriculum standards.

The footlockers include authentic and replica historical items such as uniforms, letters and propaganda, along with curated lesson plans, music playlists and research materials. The program aims to make history more tangible by fostering curiosity and critical thinking while highlighting underrepresented perspectives and connecting global events to local history.

A partnership with the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area has supported the program's success. Museum staff have contributed expertise and local historical connections to help students and teachers explore related historical sites, enriching classroom learning with community-based experiences.

“This program has provided an enriching and engaging component to the traditional classroom curriculum that students have repeatedly told us they have never been able to experience before,” said Curry. “Students get to personally interact with real-life, tangible historical artifacts [….] This gives students the opportunity to make personal connections to stories and the real people behind them.”

This year’s Jaffarian Award Committee was chaired by Anne Link, K-5 media specialist, Bristol Elementary School, Webster Groves, Mo.; Lucy Podmore, librarian, Tom C. Clark High School, San Antonio, Texas; Amy Ojserkis, media specialist, Atlantic County (N.J.) Institute of Technology; and Julie Williams, librarian, Sanford (Maine) Middle School Library.

“The Award Committee felt that the work to gather authentic artifacts, primary sources and the collaborative efforts with community members and organizations made this program stand out. A compelling component to the Historical Footlockers was including the perspectives of underrepresented citizens on the home front,” said committee chair Anne Link. “The website that was provided along with book selections chosen for the historical time periods gives librarians and teachers easy and engaging lessons in which to share these important historical events with their students.”

The Jaffarian Award is administered by ALA’s Public Programs Office in cooperation with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL).

Applications for the 2026 award will open in February 2026. Application information, award guidelines and a list of previous winners are available at www.ala.org/jaffarian.

To stay up to date on award and grant offerings from ALA’s Public Programs Office, sign up for ALA’s Programming Librarian newsletter.

About the ALA Public Programs Office

The ALA Public Programs Office empowers libraries to create vibrant hubs of learning, conversation and connection in communities of all types. Learn more at www.ala.org/ppo.

About the American Association of School Librarians

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

About the American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is the only non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated entirely to America's libraries and library professionals. For almost 150 years, ALA has provided resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. The ALA serves academic, public, school, government, and special libraries, advocating for the profession and the library's role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. For more information, visit www.ala.org.