Junior Girl Scouts Donate Quarters for Haiti Library

Junior Girl Scout Troop 866 donated quarters at the Mission Viejo Library last Tuesday to raise funds for the "Linking Libraries to Help Haiti" project.  All funds collected will go to rebuilding the Centre Culturel Pyepoudre in Port-au-Prince which was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake a year ago.

The American Library Association is hoping to collect $50.00 from each library involved with the nationwide project.  For each quarter that children give, they will receive one strip of fabric.  They can write their names on the strip.  Then the cloth will be turned into a chain "link" with other links.  The colorful chains will decorate the Mission Viejo Library and then eventually the links will adorn the walls of the Centre Culturel Pyepoudre.

"The links are reminders that the kids helped," Community Outreach Supervisor of Library and Cultural Services Kathi Dickey said.

Dickey invited Junior Girl Scout Troop 866 to come and donate quarters at the Mission Viejo Library as a community service project for the troop.

Madison Shimizu, 10, dropped a quarter into the can and received her cloth strip.

Shimizu said, "It feels really good to donate.  I hope one day the people in Haiti get to read, 'Number the Stars.' It's a great book."

After she wrote her name on a piece of fabric, Olivia Price, 10, said, "I hope they get to build a library with this."

Donations will be accepted through February 9th.  The Mission Viejo Library is located at 100 Civic Center in Mission Viejo.  The phone number there is 949-830-7100.