Hyattsville's Nicholas Orem Middle School Gets Wealth of New Books

Not long after the first blog entry went up, the request at got full funding; all of the requested books are on their way to their new home, and it's due, in large part, to local contributors. Donors from Upper Marlboro, Hyattsville, other unnamed Maryland cities and even some from as far away as New York stepped up enthusiastically.

Jessica Kolling, the teacher whose classroom will benefit, was of course thrilled to get word that her titles were enroute. In her response on the official website, she says, "Thank you SO SO MUCH for your amazing, generous donations! I can't even express enough my graditude for your help. My students are going to be so excited to have our new books and I know the level of investment in reading for enjoyment will increase. I could not have supplied my students with these books without your dedication to helping classrooms like mine, so I thank you endlessly."

Reached by email for further comment, she continued by saying that, "I'm definitely going to put up another project soon for more books. I'm hoping to put together a list centered around war and personal trauma.  My students have gotten really interested in topics like the Holocaust ... and there are a lot of great young adult books that deal well with tough issues, so I think those would be great books to add to our library."

More than just a little tip of the hat needs to be offered to the Townsend Press, a New Jersey-based educational publisher that covered half the costs of the project and without which this plea might well have floudered for some time; the press, operated by businessman John Langan and his wife, has a catalog that is outdone only by an eager, heartfelt generosity and a strong desire to give back to the very students and communities they help serve.  To date, they have assisted in the funding of more than 3300 different projects, reaching some 280,000 students; they have long since crossed the $2 million mark with their giving, and this all comes on top of the fact that they sell the most popular titles of their children's line to schools at a price of $1 a copy.

Langan said that, "In a nutshell, I believe [that] reading is the key to education and to developing the language skills so essential in today’s world.  The more students read, the better off they will be. In particular, at-risk students suffer from major print deprivation and need to do a great deal of reading to become language-healthy and literate. To get students to read, they must have books they want to read.  Every student has the right to experience the pride and pleasure of owning his own books." 

Kudos to the Townsend Press and everyone else who gave. While there are no active posts for Hyattsville at the moment, there are nearly 20 within the county, all of which can be found here.