More Books, Please

Books, books, books. Remember last week when I wrote about the mobile library a local 8-year-old is helping to build? Well, her father (Dr. Allen Coffman, a local pediatrician) dropped by our store today to kickstart the book donation campaign, and he brought that most precious of all commodities: information.
Here is an excerpt from an informational pamphlet written by his daughter, Mary Grace, who is the driving force behind the book drive.

"I would like you to please donate books for a library at a school in Nigeria!!!" Mary Grace writes. "I got interested in doing this because I couldn't believe that a school didn't have a library. I told my daddy, 'It isn't a school without a library.'"

So, she decided that something must be done. Mary Grace, along with friends and family, are planning to ship a 40-foot cargo container to a 300-student Nigerian school, where the shipping container will be used as a mobile library. Pre-school through 10th grade students attend Right Steps School in Abia State, Nigeria, which has some outdated text books, but no books for kids who would like to study or read outside of class. Right Steps is run by Nigerian native Chi Ekwenye, who earned her PhD at the University of Georgia before returning to her home land to open a school, a clinic, and an orphanage known as Susana Homes (accompanying photo is from a Susana Homes event).

Officially, the book donation campaign begins tomorrow, although we already have a few donations here in our store. Dr. Coffman hopes that the mobile library will be ready to ship overseas by September of this year.