Written by Denise Gary
It is always very moving when children work to make life better for other children they have never met. I am never sure they truly comprehend the desperate lives other children sometimes lead, but I do know that a spirit of peace, tolerance, and compassion is forged by working to help others.
Although Kids Need to Read does not usually accept or provide used books in our program, we made an exception when teacher Tracy Weaver of Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona approached us about conducting a service project to benefit KNTR last year. Her ESL students wanted to help KNTR by collecting lots of books for our organization. How could we not encourage such kindness and determination? We really had no idea the students meant a MEGA book drive! Tracy’s students went to work and collected over 3,000 used books! Then, with Tracy’s assistance, KNTR volunteers put together a sale of the books in the school cafeteria. A total of $1,341 was raised through the sale, as well as through book swapping with Changing Hands Bookstore.
© Denise Gary
Of course, such a special project deserved very special recipients. We found them in the students attending a rural Mississippi elementary school seeking to improve the lives of their poverty-stricken students through literacy enrichment. The enthusiastic staff of West Clay Elementary School has a 95% poverty rate and the county’s highest unemployment rate to contend with, but they fortify their emphasis on literacy by providing a wealth of reading time, summer reading programs, and sometimes even Saturday school. From librarian Vicki Cooper:
The small community we are in has no industry, very few families, and no support for the school at all. Most of our children come from homes with a grandparent and at best a single mom with no education. Reading can change their lives!
Kids Need to Read sent the school a load of books, reading incentives, activity suggestions, and Highlights and Highlights High Five magazines to help empower their students. We soon received this beautiful photograph of some of the 4th graders enjoying the new books.
© Vicki Cooper
Vicki included the following note telling us of an important lesson learned:
We are doing a Dear Dumb Diary series – they loved having all the books to choose from. They kept a diary for the month of (late Feb/March) – a very private affair! They loved writing, reflecting upon their crazy/silly daily life.
The boys in that grade are doing a Diary of the Wimpy kid mini lesson along the same line. They kept their own silly diary, relating to others, but keeping it private and sharing it if they liked. We found out our lives are really fun when we laugh a lot!
Thank you for these wonderful books!
Vicki explained that the popularity of these books was due in part to the fact that the library had never had series sets before the KNTR donation.
We thank Tracy Weaver, her ESL students, Mountain View High School, Highlights for Children, and Changing Hands Bookstore for bringing books, magazines, and laughter to the children of West Clay Elementary School. We had lots of fun working with everyone on this project, and of course, we feel great joy in assisting such wonderful kids! Hopefully, lives were changed at both schools.
Robert Gary, Tracy Weaver, Joe Williams, Denise Gary, Marianne Luskey, Sherry Miller, Michael Emerson, Erin Casey, Roxanne Rousakis, and Collin © Denise Gary
