Students at Fontenelle Elementary School soon will be adding Harry Potter, Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss to their library shelves, thanks to the generosity of staff members in UNMC’s McGoogan Library of Medicine.
The library has held fund-raising events throughout the year to purchase new books for the North Omaha school. After three used book sales, a bake sale and three gift wrapping weekends at the toy store Zany Brainy during the holiday season, the staff raised $1,500 to purchase more than 100 books. Last year’s book drive raised $1,100.
“This is our way of supporting the school,” said Teresa Hartman, National Library of Medicine liaison for Nebraska and a fund-raising participator. “People are glad to give money when you tell them that their donation is helping the kids.”
The librarian at Fontenelle Elementary provided a wish list with a wide variety of book titles.
“Fontenelle picked out a great mix of book titles — from old classics like ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ to books about insects,” said Mary Helms, associate professor, assistant director of the McGoogan Library and one of the fund-raiser’s original organizers.
McGoogan Library employees went on a book-shopping spree after raising the money.
“It was nice to take a break from high education to pick out fun books,” Hartman said. “Some are replacements for worn out books. You can bet that Dr. Seuss has already been in their library.”
The books will be sent to Fontenelle Elementary in April, as soon as special McGoogan Library bookplates are inserted inside the books.
Fontenelle Elementary is a partner school of UNMC, and this is the third year that the McGoogan Library has adopted the library. Every department in the McGoogan Library participated in the fund raising.