Rotary Club program provides free books to students, school libraries

John Sena | The New Mexican

5/15/2008 - 5/16/08

A line of about 25 kids filed out of a yellow school bus parked on West San Francisco Street on Thursday, took a few steps through the sprinkling rain and walked into Collected Works Bookstore.

Store owner Dorothy Massey stood at the entrance to welcome the elementary students and invited them to the back of the store where children's books are kept.

For the next 45 minutes, students searched the shelves, looking for the one book that they'd take home, for free.

It was all part of Rotary Reads, a program of the Rotary Club of Santa Fe, where Rotarians read to students at various schools. At the end of the year, the club's foundation funds a student trip to Collected Works.

"It's very exciting," said Debbie Gallegos, a fourth-grade teacher at Chaparral Elementary. "Not all of the kids have books at home so this is a special treat."

The program started last school year with eight classes from Piñon Elementary. This year, another eight Piñon classes and seven classes from Chaparral took part.

Each school picks a class from every grade based on how much reading those students have done throughout the year.

Gallegos' class read more than 20,000 pages this year, she said.

Each student picked one book priced at $12 or under. The store will send a copy of each selected book to the school library. Both purchases are paid for by the Rotary Club, with help from other donors. Collected Works offers a 10 percent discount.

Based on students' selections, their libraries will get a diverse group of books.

Josh Black, 9, searched diligently for a book about weather, specifically tornados. He and Massey crouched on the floor, searching through nonfiction titles before they found something that fit the bill: the National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Clouds and Storms.

"I just watched the movie Twister," Josh said. "I want to be a storm chaser and a meteorologist."

Miquaela Jaramillo sifted through a series of Hank the Cowdog books — Hank keeps watch over a West Texas ranch — to find one she hadn't read. "I've read most of them," she said.

At a nearby table, Diego Montoya, Dustin Nelson and Finnley Stephens compared books on minerals and stones. The three said they learned about the subject in Gallegos' class. "I got interested because she taught us about how much they cost and how valuable they are," 10-year-old Dustin said.

Gallegos' class was the last of 15 that made the trip to the bookstore this year. Next year, the program is expanding to Kaune Elementary, making 22 classes total and reaching more than 500 students.

Massey, who was approached about the idea by Rotarian Lorraine Goldman, said her store is also involved in other school partnerships and is glad to be part of Rotary Reads. "It's a very special concept," Massey said. "The ownership of the book is a very important matter to the children."

Contact John Sena at 986-3079 or jsena@sfnewmexican.com.