Readers grow everywhere! BPES students send books to Liberia

This year’s PARP (Pick a Reading Partner) theme at Broadalbin-Perth Elementary School “Readers Grow Here.” But BPES media center staff felt they could take it a step further, changing the theme to “Readers Grow Everywhere” and spearheading an effort to send books to Jacob Town, Liberia.

Last school year, media center teaching assistant Jen Szumowski, working in collaboration with the Mayfield Presbyterian Church, challenged students to collect as many books as possible to send to a school that desperately needed them. Students answered the call, donating more than 1600 new and gently used children's books by the end of 2023. Earlier this week, the books collected and donated by the B-P and Mayfield communities arrived at the New Beginnings Christian Academy in Jacob Town. 

“It truly warms my heart to be a part of something like this. It’s wonderful,” Szumowski said. “It is a joy to see our students giving and doing for others, and seeing the children in Liberia with our books in their hands is heartwarming.”