Run Connecticut Run!

We had another "adoption" go through today. A couple of weeks ago a middle school in Connecticut contacted us wanting to do the Exercise the Right to Read program but donate their pledges to a school in the "Katrina" area. First off, I love that. I love that there are teachers / schools / kids who come forward and say, "We want to help." So I started making phone calls to see what I could arrange. (I began by calling information and getting the number for the Louisiana Department of Education.) Several helpful conversations later, I was in touch with the Director of Academics for the "Recovery District". She, in turn, met with school principals in the Recovery District and came back to us with a school. It's a middle school on the east side of New Orleans, a section of the city that's having a hard time recovering from the Katrina disaster. From what I understand, the old school was completely destroyed by the hurricane, and where the pre-Katrina buildings used to be, there are now modular buildings. "It has tremendous potential," the Director informed me, "but at this point there's very little inside the buildings." In other words, their library has no books. "Connecticut's going to help them with that!" I told the Director, and she was touched that kids in a school so far away were stepping forward to help. I am, too. I mean, it's one thing to have the idea that one school could adopt another. It's quite another to actually step forward and adopt. Run, Connecticut, run!