Altrusans welcome Pennsylvania book parcel

By Archive

Published: June 16, 2008

Enterprise’s Altrusa International club had a banner year with its “No Child Without A Book” program, collecting thousands of donated books and delivering them to children through the city’s elementary schools.

Blue boxes placed throughout the city serve as drop-off points for children’s books, and local Altrusans then sort through them and deliver them to elementary school media centers. Media specialists then give the books away to children.

For some of the children, these are the first books they’ve ever personally owned.

Altrusans David and Mildred Meder of State College, Pennsylvania heard about the program and recently drove down a shipment of nearly 700 children’s books, which were then delivered to students at Hillcrest Elementary School.

“It was really so fun to do,” said Mildred Meder, who with her husband David are members of Altrusa International of Blair County, Pennsylvania. “It was fun for the Blair County club to interact with a club from another part of the United States.”

Meder said her husband first heard of Enterprise’s literacy program when he attended last year’s Altrusa International convention and met local club member Judy Atkinson, who is the past president of Altrusa International.

Meder explained that their club also collects books for children, which they distribute every October at the Hollidaysburg Halloween Parade. Traditionally, books are distributed to children aged seven and younger, so Meder said they often pass the extra books to other charities.

When the Meders learned of the Enterprise “No Child Without A Book” program, they committed to add their extra children’s books to it.

Meder said she and her husband turned the delivery into a road trip, which began with a conference in Richmond, Virginia, took them to their daughter’s home in North Carolina and her sister’s home in Florida before swinging north and west to Enterprise.

After delivering the books to Hillcrest Elementary school, they drove another two days back to Pennsylvania where they shared the experience with their local club members.

Meder said it touched their hearts to hear about how Hillcrest Elementary School was hit by last year’s tornado, and they wanted to do something to help.

Mary Griffin, who serves as the literacy coordinator for the local Altrusa club, said the Meders’ donation was enough for every child at Hillcrest to have their own book.

Griffin said she was initially shocked to learn that so many books would be travelling so far to reach them.

“You’re grateful for everything that comes your way,” she said.

Griffin said that, so far during the last four years since she has been coordinating the program, almost every elementary school has been covered twice with donated books, which have amounted to around 5,000 total books.

“We at least take 200 to 300 every time we go to a school,” she said.

Griffin says the No Child Without A Book program is just getting started, and she says it requires continuous effort. New children are entering the school system all the time, she says.

Those who wish to donate children’s books to the No Child Without A Book program can take their donations to marked boxes at the following Enterprise locations: Piggly Wiggly, Po Folks, Winn-Dixie, Ryans, Cutts Restaurant, Century 21, Hillcrest Baptist Church and St. John’s Catholic Church.