Today, David Mazor, the founder of Reader-to-Reader, a Springfield-based non-profit literacy organization, came to BCD to meet the Fifth Grade, and to collect the hundreds of books donated by the BCD community over the last month. Reader-to-Reader serves libraries and schools in over 40 states and in several countries, including Ghana, Haiti, Costa Rica and Kenya.
Over the past month, students were engaged in several parts of the Book Drive process. We began by researching Reader to Reader and discussing how non-profits help to serve people around the world. Students worked in pairs to learn about different aspects of the organization and its mission. Next, the Fifth Grade created a series of flyers in Integrated Studies class to announce the book drive and spread the word about this meaningful project. Students honed their public speaking skills by preparing a presentation for Middle School Morning Meeting (which never happened due a snow day), as well as for visits to the homerooms from Preschool to Grade 9 to answer questions and guide students in their participation. Once the book drive began, the Fifth Grade made daily trips to Albright Hall where a book drop was set up, to gather and shlep the books back to fifth grade. Today, the project concluded with the pick up of the books and a question-and-answer session with David Mazor.
Thanks to all the students and parents of BCD who participated, and to Naomi Blumenthal for helping us to organize the books at the end. As David Mazor remarked, “It is projects like this that help us see that we are all connected.”
Great job, Fifth Graders!