ABOUT 50,000 BOOKS are on their way to the children of Liberia from the people of Kansas. More than 1,000 of those books were donated in Emporia.
In February, The Gazette reported that the 12th Avenue Dillon’s store was participating in the statewide “Love in Your Attic” drive to collect picture books for Liberia, which has only one such book for every 27 children. The monthlong drive was organized by Trees for Life, a Wichita nonprofit that provides aid for Third World nations.
Here in Emporia, Mary and Jack Melhorn volunteered to pick up the books donated at Dillon’s, sort them and pack them for shipping. The Friends of the Emporia Public Library provided support, and the youth group of the Emporia Presbyterian Church helped, gluing bookplates into the books and packing them for their trip. The Melhorns took the books back to Dillon’s to be shipped to Wichita and then to Liberia.
Mary Melhorn said Monday that 1,078 books were donated at the Emporia Dillon’s store before the drive ended Feb. 28.
The end of the book drive was officially recognized last week at a ceremony in Wichita. The people attending signed a large banner that will accompany the books to Liberia.
The “Love in Your Attic” book drive shows how quickly and how well a community and a state can respond to the needs of people half a world away and how willing the people of Emporia and Kansas are to do what they can to help others, even in hard times.
The Wichita Eagle said Trees for Life’s next project will be building a portable library to house the books and get them to the children.
Of course, 50,000 books are not enough for the children of Liberia, but they are enough to stock a good-size traveling library program. If a few other states get involved and do as well as Kansas has done, children’s books could become as familiar as sight in Liberia as they are in Emporia.
Congratulations to Mary and Jack Melhorn for diving head first into the project and doing such a good job. Thanks also to the young people at Emporia Presbyterian Church, the folks in Friends of the Library and everyone who donated books.
This was not a government aid project, just people helping people.
For some things, that works just fine.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor