Mississippi ping!
Posted on 05/07/2006 8:25:30 AM PDT by SandRat
When Michael Ward of Troop 406 in Phoenix, Ariz., learned that Hurricane Katrina had destroyed all 9,612 books in the Anniston Elementary School library in Gulfport, Miss., he resolved to dedicate his Eagle Scout project to collecting enough books to restock the library.
After getting approval from his local school board, Michael sent fliers about the book drive to the 32 schools in his district. Students were eager to help, collecting books and donating school supplies, while the school district agreed to deliver the books to a central location.
When Michael invited local businesses to participate, a bookstore chain set up donation boxes in every store. Another bookstore dedicated its annual book drive to the cause. Books began to pile up.
More than 200 volunteers from schools, churches, and Scout troops helped to sort and package the books, which a local trucking company volunteered to carry to Gulfport.
As stories about the drive appeared in the news, donated books arrived from unexpected sources. An 88-year-old woman sent a thick reference dictionary that had belonged to her sister. A retired teacher called a participating bookstore, wanting to donate her entire collection of children's books to "that boy on TV."
Recently retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a longtime Arizona resident, donated a copy of her new children's book, Chico.
"This is a great idea," she told Michael as she autographed the book. "I don't know what could matter more in a community than the library."
The final count was more than 33,000 books. Needless the say, librarians in Gulfport were overwhelmed when informed that so many books were on their way from Arizona.
"Thirty thousand books! Wow! I do not know what to say!" exclaimed Iris Collins, librarian at Anniston Elementary, in an e-mail to the Ward family. "[Although we do] not have a location [at the moment] to store the books, our superintendent of schools has said that he will make space."
The total was enough to completely restock the Anniston Elementary library and provide surplus books to the local Gulfport high school and four public libraries that also lost their collections to the hurricane.
Good book story ping.
Oh sure. The liberal indoctrination centers ignore separation of church and state when they benefit from it. Typical liberalism.
A Scout is Kind.
Thanks for posting this.
It is a great example of how America can work without bloated and corrupt government.
well done, scouts!
Ping
All the good that Scouting does for America is ignored by the MSM.
Thanks for the post.
ping
when i read this the first thing i thought was "uh-oh silverfish"
but seriously...that is sweet that he was able to get so many books.
Mississippi ping!
Excellent Eagle Project!
If only they'd allow him to have a rectum wrecker as a scout master he would have managed to collect 60,000 books...
/SARCASM
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.