Rotary fund-raiser to bring in 9,000 books

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- More than 9,000 new books are on the way to three

Westside elementary schools after the community answered a plea by local

service organizations.

Last month, three local Rotary clubs issued a challenge to the

community, asking the public to make donations to match the $7,800

pledged by the Rotary clubs of Newport-Balboa, Newport-Irvine and Newport

Sunrise to buy thousands of books for Pomona, Wilson and Whittier

elementary schools.

The community outpouring didn’t match the Rotarians pledge, but the

drive did raise $6,000.

“I think it was great that people stepped up to the plate,” Rotarian

Roger McGonegal said. “At the holidays, everyone is soliciting money for

every cause and beating the drum. The fact that we got $6,000 was very

positive.”

Wilson Principal Candy Sperling said the money would have an immediate

effect on her school.

“It answers a lot of needs,” Sperling said. “It will probably drive

our writing program, and I think it will have a big impact on everything

we do. I think it’s wonderful.”

Each school was given the go-ahead to order about 2,500 books for

classroom libraries or wherever they saw fit, Sperling said.

At Wilson, teachers in each grade level were allowed to choose about

440 books for their classroom libraries.

Schools can expect to receive the books by the end of the school year,

McGonegal said.

The books have been ordered through The Los Angeles Times’ Reading By

9 program, which allows Rotarians to use the program’s massive purchasing

power to get as much as a 50% discount, he added.

That discount allowed the group to buy more than 9,000 books with the

more than $13,000 raised.

Rotarians chose the three Westside schools in the hope that additional

reading materials would raise test scores, said Jim de Boom, a Rotarian

and Daily Pilot columnist.

Each of the schools have a large number of students who speak little

or no English, which has contributed to the area’s lower test scores,

school officials said.And after the passage of Proposition 227, which

halted most dual-language education, the schools lost a large number of

Spanish books in their libraries, McGonegal said.

Now that books are on the way, there’s another need to fill for

students, he said.

“We’re looking for citizen volunteers of any age -- high school kids,

volunteers from the police departments, businesses large and small,

retired people -- to come to volunteer an hour a week to help improve

their reading skills,” McGonegal said.

Anyone interested in volunteering may call de Boom at (949) 660-8665.