Do a good deed today AND clean out your basement in the process

I am browsing my favorite motorcycle forum (www.advrider.com) and come across this request for books for teenagers in trouble. I have a LOT of books in my house from when the kids were young (now grown) and sent Katie a 35 lb box of them today. Have some around collecting dust? How about getting a box and sending them to Katie? Don't have any age-appropriate books but would like to help? Mail her an Amazon Gift Card and let her pick books for the kids. This is good stuff to do, and it won't cost you a lot (My UPS shipping was $ 18.65). Sometimes all these kids in trouble need is just a little help to get pointed in the right direction. Plus if you do it, you'll have a little more spring in your step today, I guarantee it. If you have some books and don't really want to pay for the shipping, send me the bill and I'll reimburse you via PayPal - don't ask Katie to pay even though she has offered, she's on a Tennessee schoolteacher's salary and I can afford to pay the shipping way more than she can.

Do it now! Otherwise you'll forget!

Duane

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Yesterday, 10:42 AM
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: East Tennessee
Wanted - your old kid's books

I teach at an alternative center in Johnson City, TN. I have a self contained class of 7th and 8th graders who have been kicked out of the regular classroom for a myriad of reasons - apathy, defiance, aggression, neglect, drug charges (180 day suspension; there is really no such thing. They just remove them from the regular classroom to make people feel good). One of the things I find great joy in is connecting these kids to education and making them feel worthy of putting in the effort to become reasonable students. Up until this point in their loves they "hate to read". I try very hard to change that by introducing them to great children's lit - Gary Paulsen (Hatchet, Brian's Winter, The River, Harris and Me, The Car, The Winter Room, etc.) is an EASY way to get them hooked. They tend to find that they actually enjoy free reading time each day. The system does not give me any money to buy these types of books and my collection is old and literally falling apart. If any of you guys have teen lit books laying around the house that you no longer need, I would much appreciate the hand-me-downs. I made the choice to come work with "at-risk" over 8 years ago from the "regular" classroom and I am have never looked back nor am I going to complain that these kids get the shaft big time when budget and funds are going around. I am more than happy to pay shipping for any books you happen to find. I had a kid who "hated to read" 7 months ago just make his way through all my Paulsen and Spinelli books and is, honest to god, reading My Brother Sam is Dead, and LOVING it. (It's MY old copy from jr. high.) That's why I do what I do each and every day! That's the payoff for sure.

Thank you super huge much!
Katie

School is (send to):
Science Hill High School Alternative Center
C/O Katie Prince
820 West Market St.
Johnson City, TN 37604