Katonah Lewisboro Students Donate Thousands of Books

A group of elementary school students from the Katonah Lewisboro School District this week delivered 5,000 donated books to the Lansingburgh Central School District in Troy, NY, as part of an effort sponsored by Front of the Class (FOTC), a 501(c)(3) charity based in South Salem.

The books were collected through a Book Drive in the Katonah Lewisboro district that included all of the district’s elementary schools and surrounding communities. The books were trucked up to Troy on Wednesday, May 13.

“I am so proud of the families in our school district and surrounding communities,” said Front of the Class President Bill McCormick in a statement. “The outpouring of support was amazing. Thank you to all the donors and volunteers that made our Book Drive a success!”

Front of the Class originally contacted Lansingburgh Superintendent Cynthia DeDominick to determine if her district could use backpacks of school supplies from FOTC’s’ Meet the Need for Students Backpack Program. Although her district was well covered for backpacks by local credit unions. Mrs. DeDominick said that what she really needed was books. She needed books to build out reading areas in her elementary school classrooms, to supplement her libraries and to lend to kids who did not have books to read at home.

FOTC reached out for ideas to Jane Corace, a 4th grade class teacher at Meadow Pond Elementary School located in South Salem, New York and Co-Advisor of the school’s Kindness Club. Mrs. Corace suggested running a Used Book Drive in conjunction with the school’s Parents as Reading Partners Program (PARP) in March. She also suggested including the district’s other two elementary school in the Book Drive too.

To cover the Book Drive expenses, FOTC agreed to pay for the packaging and transportation of the books. In addition, the charity provided an incentive by agreeing to donate to Lansingburgh CSD $0.25 per each book collected up to a goal of 2000 books to buy new books or materials for building out their in-class reading areas.

With the support of the KLSD and the respective school principals, kids from each of the district’s elementary school brought their lightly used books to school to donate to the Book Drive. In addition, Increase Miller Elementary School donated a large number of books from their PARP Book Swap. Mrs. Corace and her 4th grade class ran the Book Drive at Meadow Pond collecting and boxing the books.

During the Book Drive, KLSD posted an article on the district website about the kid’s efforts. The result was that Front of the Class was bombarded with emails and phone calls from people in the community asking how they could donate books. We decided to expand the Book Drive to the community by holding an event at the Lewisboro Town Park on April 18th where donors could drop off books. A number of FOTC Board Members and their families volunteered to help man the drop off area.

Overall, the kid’s efforts and the community event collected approximately 5000 books. The books were donated in all of the elementary schools and from a number of the surrounding communities (Bedford, Katonah, Lewisboro and Ridgefield). In addition, the newly renovated Lewisboro Library donated a number of books that were left over after they moved back in.

Lansingburgh Superintendent DeDominick expressed her gratitude to everyone involved: “The principals are so excited about the amazing volume and variety of books. Thanks so much for the effort you put forth in making this a reality.”

Photo 1: Mrs. Corace’s Meadow Pond ES 4th Grade Class in front of the books in the U-Haul on delivery day; Photo 2: Bill McCormick (President of FOTC) & his son Matthew McCormick (from Mrs. Corace’s class) present the incentive check to Lansingburgh Superintendent Cynthia DeDominick. Photo credit: Contributed

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