Little background first…
I volunteer at an inner city school in Birmingham for a program called MORE (Motivators Of Reading Enrichment).
Each week the kids are required to read a book from a selected list and complete a book report for me. I grade them and if they score 70% or higher then I reward them with their choice of a book from my book bin. When they complete 5 reports they win a T-shirt. 10 reports they win a candy bar. 20 reports and they win a blue ribbon.
The object is to encourage kids to read and to help them build up their own “library” in their homes. Most of these kids do not have books at home. In fact, most of these kids don’t have clothes, food, shelter, parents that give a damn, etc.
Each year I do extra things for the school I am in as I can afford to. Last year my father bought 24 cases of oranges around the holidays and I bagged up 10 oranges a piece for the kids. You would have thought I had given them bags of gold. During Valentine’s Day I bought all of them new crayons and coloring books. The company I worked for matched what money I raised around Christmas last year and I was able to contribute 18 complete school uniforms (pants, belt, shirt, back pack and heavy winter jacket) for the school uniform bank.
Anyway, I always try to buy each child in my class a hard back copy of the Dr. Seuss book “Oh, The Places You Will Go”. I read this book to them and talk about setting goals and the things they can accomplish and how not to let anyone distract them from their goals. It is a very good tool and it gets the kids thinking that there is a chance of having a better life than what they are living now.
These kids have next to nothing. They crave attention from an adult…any adult. I am the only white person in the school and I have to build up trust with these kids for the first few weeks. I become very close to my class each year and you would not believe the stories I hear from these babies. Abuse. “Being molested by a family member and that is why I moved to Alabama”. Neglect. Coming to school hungry and their teachers giving them breakfast. Uniforms that are so threadbare from being passed down from child to child that you can almost see through them.
The staff at this school is amazing. The principal actually has a washer and dryer (that was donated by Alabama Power Company) in the back of her office to try and keep these kids clothes clean. She told me, “I can’t do a thing about their homelife sometimes but I can make sure they feel good about themselves by having a clean, pressed uniform to wear.”
I have moved to a new company and unfortunately it doesn’t look like I am not going to be able to get as much help funding my projects at the school this year.
I have tried getting in touch with different publishing companies to see if I can buy the books at a bulk rate or get any kind of discount but I can’t seem to get anyone to call me back.
So I turn to Dopers. Do any of you work in the publishing industry or might be able to point me in the right direction on how to go about applying for a donation of books or a reduced price so I can afford to buy them?
Thank you in advance for thinking about it and if nothing else, if you guys could keep these kids and this school in your thoughts and prayers and send good vibes our way I would appreciate it.
I meet my new class next week and I can’t wait. I’ve already been told that they had to cut the 4th grade down from 4 classes to only 2 so I should have a huge class this year.
Thanks again!
Aries