Audio clip
Gerald Mason
When Anita Campbell tried to help a teacher at Howard School of Academics and Technology organize a student project on World War I, the librarian couldn’t find a single book about the war on any of the shelves.
That situation stands to change as Howard soon will benefit from a successful fundraiser and book drive that netted more than $60,000 in cash and new-book donations.
“It’s exciting,” Ms. Campbell said. “We can check books out for (students) at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, but it’s really not the same as them having their own.”
Organizers of the campaign held a reception Thursday at the school’s library to celebrate the successful effort.
The book drive began in December as the Bethlehem Center’s V-Team Leadership Network of America raised $20,000 to improve Howard’s empty library shelves and out-of-date books. The second phase involved 50 captains charged with raising at least $500 each. In all, the drive raised $42,000 in cash and more than $18,000 in books.
Gerald Mason, who works for Kastle Instructional Recovery, helped organize the campaign. He said he thought this was the largest amount of money ever raised by the black community to support a Hamilton County public school.
“It’s being done mainly by black supporters, and we are not known or recognized for conducting successful fundraising drives,” Mr. Mason said. “It’s very significant.”
County Commissioner Greg Beck joked from the podium that the fundraisers didn’t ask enough from commissioners, who supported the drive with $5,000 worth of books.
“Come back next week and ask for some more,” he said.
Mr. Beck said the next step in improving education at Howard is to make sure students read the library’s new acquisitions.
“We got the books. Now we’ve got to get the young people plugged into the books,” he said.
Ms. Campbell said her first priority in stocking the library would be purchasing nonfiction books to supplement classroom materials. She hoped to find titles on topics such as global warming and the influence of hip-hop music on clothing, she said.
Schools Superintendent Jim Scales pointed to the successful fundraiser as a positive step for Howard.
“This was no small feat. It was a tremendous effort,” he said. “This is certainly a great day for Howard school.”
BY THE NUMBERS
* Goal: $50,000
* Raised: $60,000
* Cash: $42,000
* Books: $18,000
Source: Bethlehem Center
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
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