Celebrating the written word

Danette Goulet

WESTSIDE -- Three schools this week are celebrating the arrival of

more than 9,000 books, 3,000 at each campus.

And they didn’t spend a dime on any of them.

It is simply unheard of and simply wonderful, said Julie McCormick,

principal of Pomona Elementary School.

“It supplements three programs, which is money we don’t have to spend

on books,” she said.

The books came from three local Rotary clubs, which issued a challenge

to the Newport-Mesa community in the fall.

Rotarians asked the public to make donations to match the $7,600

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.

Although community pledges fell short, the response of $7,200 was

enough to buy a lot of books, Rotarian Roger McGonegal said.

Students at the three Westside schools showed their appreciation to

Rotarians and donors this week in three celebrations.

At a party at Pomona, Pam Oravetz’ third-grade class sang and danced

for a small audience Wednesday.

The schools’ literacy leader and volunteer coordinator, Jill

McWhertor, explained how the books had been put to use in the accelerated

reader program, to fill the library of the new after-school learning

center, and to supplement science and social study programs.

“The kids just love the books and thank you for all your support,” she

told them.

The books were ordered through The Los Angeles Times’ Reading By 9

program, which allows Rotarians to use the program’s purchasing power to

get as much as a 50% discount on books, McGonegal added.

Rotarians chose the three Westside schools with the hope that

additional reading material would help 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. That 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.

But even with 1,600 new books in classrooms last year, and 9,100 more

this year, the job is still far from done, he said.

“What are needed now are mentors,” he said.

The service clubs and the schools also will continue to seek donations

and volunteers, he said.