Alice Turner isn’t a librarian, or a teacher, or a parent, but she is someone who cares about her community. Alice grew up in Red Bank, Tennessee, and she remembers how the local schools had difficulty providing books for their students to read. Funding was low, and the schools struggled to foster an interest in reading. Some students, like Alice, were lucky enough to have parents who shouldered the burden of helping their children access books, but others fell far behind the curve. Alice told Kids Need to Read about two schools that really seemed to still need help in her area of Chattanooga, Tennessee: Alpine Crest Elementary and Dawn School.
Kids Need to Read contacted these schools, and their dire lack of funding was confirmed.
Alpine Crest’s librarian, Belinda Pala, stated that her annual book budget is only $200, and that they are only allowed to help raise more library funds through one book sale each year.
Kids Need to Read shipped thirty-one books to Alpine Crest, valued at $400.
Dawn School serves grades K-8 in an economically depressed area. Most of their funding is from Title 1 programs, and they do not even have a librarian. However, they do have a reading teacher, Stephanie Laymon, who explained their situation to KNTR. Stephanie told us the library collection at Dawn School is very small, and that they receive no additional funding for it. It is run completely on donations.
Kids Need to Read sent Dawn School forty-one books, worth $550.
Stephanie graciously sent us an update when the books reached their destination:
We received our books!!! Thank you so much for the donation. We were thrilled to be included in your program.
Kids Need to Read is grateful for everyone involved in making this story a success for the kids at Dawn School and Alpine Crest, and we send a special thank you to Alice Turner for bringing their need to our attention.
