Every child should have books in his or her school library to enjoy, and this week, Halley Elementary School is helping to make that happen for one school damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
After watching the devastation on television from the storm two months ago, Halley librarian Kathy Brown said she was compelled to do something to help.
"I called the Mississippi Department of Education and told them I wanted to help out," said Brown. She was put in touch with the Bolton-Edwards Elementary/Middle School in Bolton, Miss., a town of 629 people located about 20 miles west of Jackson.
Brown talked with Bolton-Edwards principal Marnetta McIntyre, about what her school needed after the hurricane and learned that the school's book supply was sparse, even before the storm.
"They were asking for tennis balls to prop up the desks before Katrina," Brown said. "They're back in school now but they had some pretty severe wind and water damage," thanks to its location between two creeks and a sewage pond, she said.
Brown approached Halley principal Janet Funk about allowing parents and students to either purchase books for the school or donate money, and Funk happily agreed.
"We hope to help the school get back on its feet," said Funk. "We have a very giving student body; they really care about others."
WHEN THE SCHOOL year began, a few weeks after Katrina hit, Funk said her students were discussing what they had seen on television: children their age lined up in shelters, unable to go home or to school, with no toys or clothes or anything other than what they managed to take from their homes.
"The students talked about how sad it all was and who would take care of them if it happened here," Funk said. Many children remembered the flooding caused locally by Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and were able to put themselves in the other children's place.
"We felt this could be a nice way the students could help other children," Funk said.
Flyers were sent home, announcing the book fair and the opportunity to help re-establish the library at Bolton-Edwards, Brown said. She also contacted other schools in the Fairfax Station area, inviting families from the other areas to help. Twenty-five percent of the total proceeds from the book fair will be donated to the school.
"Newington Forest had their book fair recently and did something in tandem with our drive, and Silverbrook Elementary sent something home," Brown said. "We'll be happy to get more community members involved, everything we can do will help them."
Bookworm Plantation, a book distributor based in Manassas, often uses its fund-raising book fairs to generate money for special purposes, said president and founder Radhika Bajaj.
"We have a list of books that parents can choose from to send to the school and a portion of the money from each sale will be used to purchase books for the school in Mississippi," Bajaj said. All books purchased for Bolton-Edwards Elementary will be sent in December or January.
"We want them to receive all their books in one shipment so they can see how much we care about them," Bajaj said. "This is exactly the kind of thing we like to do."
THE STUDENTS at Newington Forest have already submitted a list of books they want to donate to the school, she said.
"We had everything from picture books to 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,'" said Ann Voss, librarian at Newington Forest Elementary School. "It was very rewarding to see what they wanted to share with the other children. They asked a lot of questions as to what they should send and what they think the kids would like."
Newington Forest will be donating 15 books to the school, Voss said.
"Librarians from across the country are concerned about what we can do and what supplies we can send to help schools damaged by the hurricane," she said. "All our things are made of paper and wood — water is our enemy."
On Monday, Oct. 31, as students at Halley watched their morning news program, Brown dressed up as the Holiday Turkey and reminded children of the book fair, listing some Halloween-related titles to pique their interests.
As Matt McElroy's sixth-grade class filed into the library, Brown went over instructions for making a 'wish list' of books that the students were interested in purchasing later in the week with their parents. She reminded them that they could buy books for students in the other school and then invited them to browse the tables set up in the library.
Dena Bonilla, who likes reading Lemony Snicketts' books, said she was glad to be able to donate books to help other children.
"They'll have more education and learn how to read if we help them," she said. "My parents said they'll come in for my parent-teacher conference next week and buy some books they think will be helpful."
Allison Rowley made a beeline to the "Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger," a paperback book with a chaotic school scene on its yellow cover. Some of her friends had told her the book was funny and she wanted to send a funny book to the children in Mississippi to "cheer them up."