Not long after wildfires devastated Los Angeles, Brooke Travis, a New York City parent and community organizer, reached out to Access Books.
“I knew that once the urgency subsided and the news cycle moved on, many parents, children, and teachers would need help,” she told us. “One crucial effort would be rebuilding their libraries.”
Brooke hoped to send a few hundred books for classroom and home libraries. Soon, her efforts grew, and hundreds of East Coast families started collecting books to send to Los Angeles. The first week of February, Steinway Moving delivered a truckload of books to our warehouse.
Meanwhile, Access Books joined forces with local bookstore Children’s Book World to assist with efforts to get books into children’s homes and temporary classrooms. The bookstore staff worked with the Children’s Book Council and several publishers including Random House, Scholastic, Sourcebooks, Candlewick, and Chronicle Books to obtain new books. Word spread quickly and Angelenos, eager to help, provided thousands of gently used books.
On February 15th, roughly 50 volunteers spent the morning organizing nearly 21,000 books for fire-affected school communities and other schools served by Access Books. After organizing the books, volunteers loaded cars, trucks, and SUVs to deliver to school sites.
“This has been amazing,” said an Alameda Arts parent volunteer. “There are so many terrific books and it is just what we need to start feeling normal again.”
Fire-affected schools served included Odyssey Elementary, Odyssey Middle, Alameda Arts, Elliot Middle, and Don Benito Elementary. While Don Benito didn’t burn, the school population has grown by 40% as a result of displaced students in the community.
We also provided bookshelves to classrooms without them. By all accounts, the donated books are providing a welcome distraction.
“Ever since the delivery of Access Books, our students have been voraciously reading their way through the shelves and shelves of high-quality, high-interest books,” said a teacher at Alameda Arts. “Their favorites so far are the ‘Spy School’ series and graphic novels galore!”
Thanks again to our amazing book drive partners and tireless volunteers. The road to fire recovery will be long and challenging, but giving students the escape and comfort of a good book is something we can do now.
