Desert Marigold School in Phoenix, Maxwell Middle School in Tucson and Alpine Leadership Academy in Flagstaff distinguish themselves among the ten schools vying for $15,000 in cash as part of the Bookmans School Challenge. All of the video submissions from the semi-final round illustrate creativity and community support, but only three schools could move to the final round and secure a $3,000 cash award.

“We’ve discovered through this process that every school has a compelling story to tell and we want to help share those stories,” says Sheila Kressler-Crowley, Marketing Director for Bookmans Entertainment Exchange. “This year Desert Marigold, Maxwell and Alpine told us stories about how they foster a love of learning in the face of harsh funding realities and mandates. We look forward to visiting their campuses and seeing their programs first-hand.”

To select the final three, Bookmans called for a fan favorite in addition to two internally selected schools. With over 11,000 people voting in Bookmans’ Facebook poll, Desert Marigold has emerged as the popular choice. The School Challenge committee appreciates the strong support for publicly funded schools and the school pride exemplified in the video submissions and Facebook comments. Bookmans encourages all the schools who applied to keep them up to date on their programs.

Keep up with the Bookmans School Challenge team as they visit each school by following them @Bookmans on Twitter. Bookmans will announce the School Challenge winner, who will receive the $15,000 giant check, on Monday, March 4. For more information on the Bookmans School Challenge visit our School Challenge page.