Story and Photos by Rosemary Leonetti.
After Superstorm Sandy, Scholastic Donates 38,000 Books toLong Beach Public Schools After Superstorm Sandy swept through Long Beach Public Schools, administrators went to work inventorying losses. Upon discovering that many books in school and classroom reading libraries had been destroyed by the devastating floods, they went to work soliciting donations to replace the lost books.
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Among the most generous donors was Scholastic, who responded immediately with a donation of 38,000 books to replace books lost in the middle school library as well as in classroom libraries in West, Lido and East schools. Among the donated books, supplied through Scholastic’s Book Grants program, were Leveled Reading Libraries containing multiple copies of the same titles.
East School Principal Sean Murray and Joshua Anisansel, district director of English language arts, made the trip to pick up the books from Hope NYC, a Scholastic affiliate in Jamaica, Queens. The district received further help from local resident Steven Donenfeld, the owner of Approved Moving and Storage of Brooklyn, who donated his company’s services to transport the books. Mr. Donenfeld is the husband of East School secretary Gail Donenfeld, so he was especially motivated to do whatever he could to help in the wake of the disaster.
Scholastic has pledged to donate one million books and other teaching resources to schools and libraries in the hardest hit areas of the tri-state region. Scholastic is working with nonprofit organization Kids in Distressed Situations to help distribute the million books to the schools and libraries that need them the most.
“The educators, parents and caregivers who are helping children in our hard-hit communities throughout the region are true heroes,” said Richard Robinson, Scholastic’s chairman, president and CEO. “All of us at Scholastic are committed to getting these books, lesson plans and other learning materials into the affected communities as soon as possible in the hope that we can provide support for our young people as they return to schools that need extra resources.”
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