Students Organize Book Drive for Elementary School

The shelves in a local elementary school library are no longer looking so empty, following a book drive organized by the staff of the College of Education’s Student Services Center and the Criminal Justice Undergraduate Society.

Book drive organizer Jennifer Childress, undergraduate academic advisor for the division of criminal justice, says College of Education students, faculty and staff donated close to 1,500 gently used books that were delivered to McKinley School. That’s after college volunteers had placed collection boxes in the college’s Student Services Center, the Office of the Dean and other departmental offices.

Childress says the idea for the book drive came about after she saw a report describing run-down conditions at the school. “There were no books there for seventh and eighth graders, and when I talked with one of the school officials, she told me most of the books in the library had been purchased in 1965 with a federal grant.”

College of Education volunteers loaded their book donations into SUVs and delivered them to the school on May 23. Brenda Smith, a fellow volunteer, said the book drive was a project that was very close to her heart. She had attended McKinley School.

Other key contributors to the book drive included Matt Strange, president of the Criminal Justice Undergraduate Society; Regina Sapona, associate dean for academic affairs; Nelson Vincent, assistant dean for education, research and development; Army-ROTC Major and Assistant Professor Ralph Tafuri, administrative secretary Rose Kostopoulos; the Army-ROTC/criminal justice majors; Kim Caldwell, an employee of Delhi Middle School (and one of the major donors to the book drive); and Robin Engel criminal justice associate professor.

Childress, a doctoral student in the criminal justice program, will be serving a summer internship with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati.