Books arrive in South Africa
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
Students at the Yellowwoods Preparatory School on the Eastern Cape of South Africa are the happy recipients of one big "M-Bag" of books, courtesy of the Underwood School and the numerous individuals and groups who donated new books to the school.
Too bad three bags of books are still waiting at the post office down in South Africa – but they’ll eventually get there.
The book donations came about after Underwood alumnus Alexis Longtin wrote a story for the Underwood News, detailing her student teaching in South Africa.
Teacher Mary Hefta and Alexis’ mom Mary Longin (who works alongside Hefta) decided a book collection project, where books were donated to the South African students’ school, would be a terrific idea.
It turned out to be a huge project, collecting a little over 130 pounds of books (mostly paperback, to keep the shipping cost down) that were donated by community members, the local libraries, and even not-so-local libraries, including Max and Bottineau.
Money and Amazon gift cards were also donated by several local businesses. The school’s teachers will be able to use the gift cards to purchase books that they didn’t receive with their shipments, noted Mary Longtin, books the teachers will pick out so that each of their students will be able to receive the same book.
