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Knowles Elementary students collect books for Africa
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Everyone has the power to make a difference. All it takes is a big heart and some determination. A group of Knowles Elementary students proved that recently by collecting books for children in Africa.
Five longtime friends spearheaded a book drive, convincing fellow students, parents and teachers to donate 555 books and school supplies to the project. Books were sent to a collection site in Minnesota. They will be transported to Africa by Books for Africa, a non-profit organization that has shipped 18 million books since 1988.
The students began collecting books in late January. Their original goal was to collect 500 books.
Longtime friends Miguel Garcia, Josue Perez, Jose Garcia, Antonio Solorzano and Erick Jaimes got the idea after watching a video about children in Uganda who don't have enough books or school supplies. The video was shown by Jim Nosler of LEEF (Leander Educational Excellence Foundation).
“We got the idea to make boxes for kindergarten, all the grades, to put books in,” said Josue.
The group decided to approach Knowles Principal Lisa Gibbs with the idea. They wrote a letter explaining what they wanted to do and why. Knowles Librarian Paulette Rodriguez agreed to help them with their project.
Rodriguez said she knew the boys sincerely wanted to help after they saw the video and one remarked, “I've got something in my eye.”
“We knew this couldn't be just one person, we had to contact other friends who wanted to help,” Erick said.
Although they had already started gathering books, Miguel said he and his friends were inspired to undertake their project by Deer Creek Elementary Lauren Campbell, who helped collect hundreds of books for Ugandan school children, for the second time in two years.
The friends won't all go to the same middle schools next year, but they plan to continue collecting books at their new schools, to help less fortunate children around the world.
For more information about Books for Africa, visit http://www.booksforafrica.org.
E-mail charles@hillcountrynews.com
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