Kirkwood High School Donation

STUDENT EFFORT YIELDS 5,000 BOOKS!!

In December 2010, I received an email from Karen Ambuehl, a teacher at  Kirkwood High School in Missouri.  

She wrote me that one of her English classes had decided to start a book and school supply drive, the goal being to send the donations to a school in Africa.  They were inspired to help after they read the novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, which is set in Zimbabwe.  
 

The students had collected 4,000 like new children’s books and were looking for a place in southern Africa to send the books.  After researching for organizations, they chose Botswana Book Project.  Before the students had their winter holiday, they had added another 1,000 books for a total of 5,000 Donated Books!!!!
 

The 20 students called their book drive “Literature For Life” and their energy and enthusiasm carried over to a Brunch that they catered for the class that brought in the most books. Their Literature for Life group wanted to “serve” to thank the others for their service…Nice...

Karen Ambuehl’s father, Tom Kuehnle, offered to deliver the books to the Atlanta Books For Africa warehouse, which is where the Botswana Book Project packs its container. The owners of Abstrakt Marketing Group, Scott and Ben Scully, agreed to be the student group’s sponsor, and they provided the truck and covered expenses.  This was a real community effort!
 

Here are a few photos of these remarkable students!!!