Reading receives books from Kansas State Reading Circle
By John Giffin (Contact)
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Students in Reading will have a bigger library to pick from after receiving a donation from the Kansas State Reading Circle Commission. Reading Elementary School students were the recipient of 142 books from the 86-year old organization.
The decision to give Reading the books was decided at an organizational meeting in December 2011, because of the damage the town of Reading had suffered in the May 21, 2011, tornado.
“When we met this year, it was natural to think about Reading school because they had suffered from the tornado,” said Janice Romeiser, Emporia NEA, special education instructional coach and teachers college resource center director for the Flint Hills Special Education Cooperative and Emporia State University. “They’ve just had lots and lots of issues rebuilding and restocking.”
The books selected were for kindergarten through fifth-grade students and delivered by Romeiser in December.
“As soon as we could get them stamped, I delivered it to Reading School,” she said. “It was like wow. They were just amazed.”
Several of the students gave quotes to Reading Elementary School Principal Peggy Fort, who sent them to Romeiser in a thank you email.
“They are awesome,” kindergartner Elizabeth Galloway said.
“I can get more books now,” fifth-grader Kailee McGuire said, “We need books.”
“I love to read,” first-grader Taylor Pringle said. “We have more books in our library.”
Students also sent a thank you card to the organization for the book donation. A photo of the entire student body was on the front with signatures from the students inside.
This is not the first time the Kansas State Reading Circle Commission has sent books to an area affected by natural disaster.
“When New Orleans had their horrible hurricane, we found ways to truck books there,” Romeiser said. “We sent books to Greensburg when they had the big tornado and also Chapman too.
“We’re on the look out, where ever we can help out.”
The Kansas State Reading Circle Commission is comprised of members of the Kansas National Education Association. The commission reads and reviews books, and it compiles the Kansas Reading Circle catalog, which is being pursued outside of Kansas as well.
“Schools in Kansas use that as a guide for ordering,” Romeiser said. “We now have 20 other states that are interested in using it too. It’s kind of grown.”