At the end of every school year, I ask my 7th graders to sit in their 7th grade chairs one last time to write letters… to the people who will be sitting in those chairs come September. This past June was no exception. My kids wrote pages and pages of advice, warnings, and words of wisdom. “Tell next year’s kids what to expect,” I told them.
And so they did…right down to the coolest field trip (National Poetry Month flash mob at the mall!) and what not to try and get away with (texting during class, not reading). They talked a little about what this year’s students should expect from their new teachers, too. I compile all the letters into one big letter that I’ll share with this year’s 7th graders tomorrow, on their first day of school.
But I have to confess…I pulled one of those June letters from the pile, highlighted a paragraph, and tucked into my desk drawer. It said this:
Mrs. Messner never gets mad. She is really just always all about books and joy.
Back in June, that letter made me cry…because I don’t always feel like that teacher.
Like most people, I get frustrated once in a while… when kids don’t do homework or when parents aren’t supportive…or when state regulations on standardized testing make me want to scream. But I’d really like to be that teacher that Savannah described in her letter. All about the books and the joy.
Finding that letter was such a good reminder today, as I came out of a meeting with guidance and the 6th grade teachers about all the challenges that will be presented with this year’s crew. But not just challenges… opportunities, too
It all reminded me of that old poem…I couldn’t even find the author online, but it’s called “The Feller’ that your Mother Thinks You Are.”
THE FELLER THAT YOUR MOTHER THINKS YOU ARE
While walking down a crowded street one day, I heard a little urchin to his comrade turn and say: “Say, Jimmie, let me tell you, I’d be happy as a clam If I only was the feller that my mother thinks I am.”
“She thinks I am a wonder and she knows her little lad Would never mix with nothing that is ugly, mean or bad. Oh, lots of times I sit and think how nice ‘twould be, gee whiz, If a feller was the feller that his mother thinks he is.
My friends, be yours a life of pain, or undiluted joy, You still my learn a lesson from this small unlettered boy. Don’t try to be an earthly saint with eyes fixed on a star; Just try to be the feller that your mother thinks you are.
I’m not always that perfectly patient, serene teacher that my student remembered on the last day of school. But I’d like to be.
I don’t need a polished apple or a shining silver starI’d rather be remembered for asking how you are.You may strive to be a teacher whose kids ace each state exam. I’ll just try to be the teacher that Savannah thinks I am.
First of all…a HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated to the flood-ravaged Wells Memorial Library and everyone who has helped to spread the word. I spoke with library board chairperson Marie-Ann Azar Ward this afternoon, and she says donations are pouring in, to the point where the library director burst into tears with her arms full of mail today. The good kind of tears.
For those who wanted to send new book donations but were asked to wait, there’s good news. The library has had an offer of safe, dry storage space at the community theater. So book donations can be sent any time. Boxes of beautiful new books have already started showing up.
Marie-Ann also said this: “I hope the other flooded libraries are getting this kind of help.”
I hope so, too. Let’s make sure, okay?
Grace Greene sent me a link to the Vermont Department of Libraries website, where they’re asking folks to hold off on sending book donations for now, and instead consider writing a check for a fund to help with recovery for all the Vermont libraries affected by Irene. Here’s the address:
Vermont Public Library Foundation
c/o State Librarian
Vermont Department of Libraries
109 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05609
There’s also an indie bookseller partnership set up for the heavily damaged West Hartford, VT Library. You can call The Norwich Bookstore at 802-649-1114 or visit their website to donate to a gift card for the library.
I got word from Jen Groff that The New York Library Association created a Disaster Relief fund several years ago (the last time there was major flooding) to collect donations from the library community and beyond to assist libraries damaged by floods and other natural disasters… NYLA can serve as collection point for donations and then distribute proceeds to affected libraries. To make a donation to NYLA’s Disaster Relief Fund visit the link below: http://nyla-omc.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/donate/form.html
Checks for the flooded Schoharie Free Library can be sent here:
Schoharie Free Library
c/o Treasurer Margaret Carballeira
103 Knower Ave.
Schoharie, NY 12157-0519
Checks for Middleburgh Library can be sent here:
The Middleburgh Library
323 Main St.
P.O. Box670
Middleburgh, NY 12122
Schenectady independent bookseller The Open Door Bookstore is also collecting donations for gift cards for these two libraries. Call (518) 346-2719 or visit the bookstore’s website to donate.
And to help Wells Memorial Library, send checks here:
And finally…a little inspiration for those looking for ideas about how to help.
I got an email today that made me smile all afternoon. It was from a Colorado mom who shared photos of the lemonade stand her daughter and friends set up to raise money for Wells Memorial, the flooded library on the other side of the nation. They couldn’t imagine not having kids’ books to check out of their library, so they set up a stand to sell lemonade, iced tea, cookies, shaved ice, strawberry ladybugs, and flower bouquets.
Tomorrow, they’re sending this letter to Upper Jay, NY…along with a check for $55.
Thank you SO much, Eva, Adam, Emma, Carter, Reese, Greer, Isabella, and Anna. You rock.
And thanks to everyone who’s helping these libraries get cleaned up, rebuilt, and re-stocked with books. You are making a world of difference to families in these areas that were hit so hard.
My daughter and I took a walk at Ausable Point State Park this morning, looking for caterpillars on milkweed. Instead, we found this young osprey enjoying a meal (fish? I think?) The bird let us watch, taking photos for almost twenty minutes, only looking up occasionally to make sure we weren’t coming any closer to try and steal its breakfast.
After a while, thunder and darkening skies over the marsh sent us all back to our nests. Time for breakfast here now…but I think maybe we’ll opt for pancakes instead of fish. 🙂
Cleanup continued at Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, NY today. If you haven’t yet read about the flooding that devastated the library during Tropical Storm Irene, you can read all about that (and how to help) here.
Volunteers hauled what felt like a million more buckets of mud out of the basement. That’s where the library had stored items collected for its annual fund raiser tag sale, so in addition to muddy books to shovel, there were muddy albums, DVDs, lamps, stuffed animals, board games…you get the idea. The pile of debris just keeps growing.
About the only thing that has been salvageable has been the dishes…glassware collected for the tag sale.
Volunteers have been dutifully scraping mud off plates and cups and wine glasses. Most of these were marked just fifty cents or so for the sale, but I wondered…what if my middle school students were to clean & decorate the glassware a bit, and add the inscription “I helped rebuild Wells Memorial Library after Irene – August 2011” and then sell them for $ 5-10 each at our September open house as a fund raiser?
Needless to say, there are now two bins of slightly muddy dishes in my van, and plans are brewing.
On another happy note…donations have started to arrive. Phyllis, the library treasurer, told me today she’s already received almost $500 in checks to help the library rebuild. That’s a drop in the bucket when it comes to tens of thousands of dollars in damage…but it is a start, and it makes a difference. If you’d like to donate – and this is really the best, most flexible way to help – you can send a check to:
Wells Memorial Library
P.O. Box 57
Upper Jay, NY 12987
The Bookstore Plus, a great indie bookseller helping with the relief effort, has collected more than $1600 on a gift card for the library to use for book purchases once they’re ready.
Boxes from publishers and other libraries started arriving today, too. While the library is excited about all these new books, there are new flooding concerns (flash flood warning Sunday/Monday due to heavy rains) and worries about storage, so they’re asking folks to hold off on sending any more books, at least for now. The books that have already arrived are safe and sound, though…
…in my living room. We don’t live in the flooded area, so we’re storing these boxes until things dry out at the library. My daughter volunteered to make a list of what’s there to avoid duplication when books are purchased. And the truth is…after shoveling mud-drenched hardcovers for two days, it’s lovely to see some beautiful, clean, dry books that will soon be in kids’ hands in Upper Jay.
Please do remember, the Upper Jay library is one of several in need of help right now. Here’s all the information about how you can make a difference.
To help the West Hartford Public Library in Vermont
Send a check to:
West Hartford Public Library
P.O. Box 26
West Hartford, VT 05084
OR
Contact local independent bookseller The Norwich Bookstore at 802-649-1114. to purchase books and/or contribute to a library gift card.
To help Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, NY Send a check to:
Wells Memorial Library
P.O. Box 57
Upper Jay, NY 12987
OR
Contact local independent bookseller The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950 to purchase books and/or contribute to a library gift card. Authors & Illustrators may also donate signed books & original art for an October fundraiser. Click here for details.
Also…
If you saw this blog post, you know how the Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, NY was devastated by a flood & lost its children’s section to Tropical Storm Irene, and how The Bookstore Plus and people from all over the world now are pitching in to help rebuild. If you want to help this library – or the West Hartford Library in Vermont, which lost its ENTIRE children’s collection in the floods – there’s tons of information on how to do that here.
The good news today? Help is coming. The library director has been flooded with emails of offers to send books, computers, workers, and more – and while the library doesn’t have space to store many books at this time, they so appreciate the donations that have been coming via The Bookstore Plus ($1600 on a gift card so far, and counting, and from as far away as Germany and England) and in the form of checks to the library. David Mazor at Reader to Reader just emailed to tell me his organization is providing six new computers to replace the ones the library lost. On top of that, authors and illustrators have been donating original art and signed books for a silent auction to be held as part of a big fundraiser at The Bookstore Plus in October. (More on that here)
But rebuilding is going to be a long process. Here’s what was going on at the library today…
The basement was filled with not only river and mud but also items that had been donated for the library’s fundraiser sale. Washing dishes and other glass items that could be saved was a great job for the kids who came to help.
These books had been collected for a library book sale fundraiser. They were all lost in the basement which was completely filled with water and mud. Volunteers passed crates and crates of mud and mud-filled books up the steps all day.
Tomorrow will be another work day at the library. If you’re not too far away and want to pitch in, carrying books, washing walls, or generally cleaning up, they’d appreciate your help. Work starts at 9 AM. Bring rubber gloves. Wear old clothes and tall rubber boots if you can. I literally had to be hosed off before I could get back in my car today.
And if you live too far away to come shovel mud, you can help in other ways:
There’s also a lot of information about how to help, including a partnership with terrific indie booksellers at The Bookstore Plus. If you call them at 518-523-2950 or visit their website, you can choose a book to donate to the library, and the bookstore will store it for them until they’re ready. Or you can donate to a gift card for the library so librarians can choose books later on. The response, so far, has been amazing, and I’m told the bookstore has more than $700 on that gift card right now. What a great start!
I’m working with Sarah at The Bookstore Plus now on what I hope will be a huge fundraiser for the library. On October 22nd, they’re going to host an evening reception where book lovers of all ages and members of Lake Placid’s vibrant arts community can come purchase books for the library. It’ll include author/illustrator appearances and (we hope) a silent auction of original art from children’s book illustrators. (I just heard from a couple illustrators who have offered to donate, so it looks like this part of the fund raiser is a go!)
If you’re a children’s book illustrator who would like to donate a piece to help this library rebuild after Hurricane Irene, would you please touch base with me, either in a comment or via Facebook or email (kmessner at kate messner dot com) to let me know? I told the bookstore I’d coordinate, so I’ll take your information, pass it along to Sarah, and then the art can be sent directly to the bookstore. They’ll will use the pieces in a big window display before the auction and then all proceeds will be donated directly to the library.
I understand that this is asking a lot…and I’m sure you get many requests each year and have to pick and choose which efforts to support, if you donate art at all. But I thought I’d put the word out, just in case this is a cause that you’d like to get behind. It would be much appreciated by the librarians and the families of this community.
Authors: If you’d like to donate a signed book, that would also be most welcome! Please mark clearly on the envelope “FOR SILENT AUCTION”
Quick How-to-Help Info: Several libraries have lost their entire children’s sections due to flooding in Hurricane Irene, and we’re teaming up with independent bookstores to help them rebuild. Want to help? Either send a check to the library OR call the bookstores. They’ll help you choose a book based on the library’s needs and will store it for them until they’re ready, or you can donate to a gift card for the library.
To help the West Hartford Public Library in Vermont
Send a check to:
West Hartford Public Library
P.O. Box 26
West Hartford, VT 05084
OR
Contact local independent bookseller The Norwich Bookstore at 802-649-1114. to purchase books and/or contribute to a library gift card.
To help Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, NY Send a check to:
Wells Memorial Library
P.O. Box 57
Upper Jay, NY 12987
OR
Contact local independent bookseller The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950 to purchase books and/or contribute to a library gift card. Authors & Illustrators may also donate signed books & original art for an October fundraiser. Click here for details.
Thanks SO much to all who have already donated. The response has been amazing, and the library’s story has spread to NPR’s All Things Considered, GalleyCat, and too many blogs, Facebook pages, & Twitter feeds to count. Truly…thank you.
Now the story that prompted this blog post…
—————————————————————-
8/31/11
My heart just about broke on an afternoon drive today.
I’d gone with my meteorologist husband to take photographs of flood damage in Essex County, just to our south. Roads were washed out, bridges closed or in pieces, familiar sights to anyone who’s seen news coverage coming out of Vermont this week. But these tiny towns along Adirondack rivers haven’t gotten much media attention.
“Go on up ahead,” one town supervisor told us from his pickup. “You need to see Upper Jay. It’s awful.”
We made our way through roads that were down to one lane, and took detours when there was no road.
“I hope the library fared okay,” I told my husband as we drove. The Wells Memorial Library is small, but it’s charming and has a ton of heart. One of my first-ever author events happened at this library, a cozy, casual reading sponsored by the Adirondack Center for Writing. I remember watching kids coming in to choose books, right before the event started. You can tell when kids feel at home in a place, when they know it’s truly their library, and these kids did.
But as we got closer to the library today, we saw more and more scenes like this.
The AuSable River, so peaceful today, had turned into a raging flood when Irene passed through over the weekend. See the mark in the middle of the zero on this speed limit sign?
That’s how high the water came.
As we drove around a bend in the road today, my husband slowed down. “Whoa…look at all the stuff in front of that house.”
But it wasn’t a house. It was the library.
They lost virtually their entire children’s collection. All of the picture books.
“They were all on the lower shelves,” library director Karen Rappaport explained, “so the kids could reach them.”
She looked at the heap of books in the yard, then out toward the river, quiet in the background today, and shook her head. “We’ve just never seen anything like this.”
She let us walk through the building to see just how devastating the flood waters had been. Old books and documents from the library’s special collections were spread out on tables to dry.
An attempt to save what could be saved…
But so much couldn’t.
At one point during our visit, a small cheer rose up from a corner of the library. Karen had discovered five dry picture books, high on a cart, waiting to be reshelved. “Look!” she showed me. “Paddington.”
This part of the Adirondacks isn’t a wealthy area, and many families are dealing with devastating losses of their own right now. So often, the library is a refuge for families in times like this, so it’s sad to think of this community’s kids not having books to read.
Paddington is a start. And I’m sending a set of all my kids’ books to be part of the library’s new collection.
Would you like to help, too? Here’s how we can rebuild the children’s collection of a small Adirondack library…
Editing to add… I spoke with a member of the library’s board of trustees, and while limited dry storage space is available for new book donations from publishers, they are getting worried about space, so unless you’re a publisher or author, please don’t send additional boxes of books to the library. Instead, consider donating in one of these ways…
1. Send a monetary donation. Checks may be made payable to the Wells Memorial Library and sent here:
Wells Memorial Library
P.O. Box 57
Upper Jay, NY 12987
2. The Bookstore Plus, a terrific independent bookstore in nearby Lake Placid, NY, has set up two options for folks who want to donate books:
1. Call The Bookstore Plus at (518) 523-2950, and a bookseller will help you choose a book to purchase, based on the library’s needs. They’ll keep track of what’s already been purchased. These books will be collected and stored, and when the library is ready, we’ll deliver them all at once. You can also order online.
2. The bookstore is also setting up a “virtual gift card” for the library. You can call and let them know you’d like to give $20 or any amount. They’ll charge your credit card and add that money to the library’s gift card for the purchase of books later on.
Children’s Book Editors & Publishers: If you’re cleaning out the shelves of new children’s books in your office & would like to send a care package, it would be most welcome. Please send it to the library address above if using USPS, or for UPS, to this address:
Wells Memorial Library
12230 State Route 9N
Upper Jay, NY 12987
Thanks in advance to anyone who’s able to help!
One more thing…I suspect that Upper Jay and West Hartford are not the only community libraries that lost much of their children’s collections when Irene came through. If you know of others, and you have specific information from the library about how people can help, please feel free to comment and share that information. I’d be happy to add to this list so that people interested in rebuilding community libraries throughout the flooded areas can learn how to help.
And finally, thank you SO much for donating and sharing this and spreading the word. Libraries are the hearts of their communities, and these communities really needs their libraries back.
As a writer who’s also a science lover, I’ve always been fascinated by severe weather. I wrote a book about storms…and while my husband, a meteorologist, worked a 21-hour shift during Hurricane Irene, I spent the day and night watching the storm sweep through the region where I live, leaving behind damage of truly epic proportions, especially in Southern Vermont. I wrote about it, to make sense of everything, because that’s what I do. I know I’m not alone in that, which is why I thought it might be good for us to have a place to share art that was created in the storm’s path.
Before Hurricane Irene hit, I posted this invitation for those in Irene’s path to write or draw or otherwise create art during the storm, and to share it online as a communal art-making experience.
Created in the Path of Irene: Links
(I’ll be adding to this list as I receive links. If you’d like to be included, just leave me a comment or email with the link. This round-up is one that includes kids’ work, so please make sure submissions are appropriate for teachers to share in classrooms. Thanks!)
“Irene” by Diane Mayr, the author of Run, Turkey, Run! writte 8/28/11, early afternoon in Salem, NH.
Late August leaves in mid- life ripped by winds, their purpose unfulfilled. Trees face autumn malnourished, undressed, totally assailable, yet with a thirst fully quenched.
Jo Knowles, author of PEARL and other YA novels, lives in Woodstock, VT, one of the hardest hit areas. She kept a journal of the storm from beginning to end. Here’s her amazing account, with photos & videos.
All of this hurricane writing and art is shared freely by the folks who created it, but please respect the ownership of the work, and if you like it, by all means, link to it – but please don’t copy and paste.
Feel free to link to this round-up page, and if you’d like to make a donation to the Vermont/New Hampshire Valley Red Cross, that would be absolutely great. Just click on the link below.
The sky is scrubbed clean and blue today, and I’m at my favorite coffee shop writing (also drinking their coffee and using their electricity, both of which are hard to come by at my house… thanks, Koffee Kat!). Other than the power outage and a few downed trees, my neighborhood was mostly spared by Hurricane Irene, but my heart is breaking for friends in Southern VT, where historic covered bridges were washed away and whole villages are flooded or isolated by washed-out roads. Here’s hoping for brighter skies and rebuilding…
Yes…I mean you…whether you are ten years old or thirty-seven or eighty. Whether you are published and award-winning and best-selling or whether you just like writing poems or drawing sketches in your notebook sometimes…
Many of us are about to have a shared experience, in the form of a big storm that’s barreling up the East Coast.
Second…would you like to be part of a collaborative writing experience? This storm is poised to affect millions of us, all up and down the East Coast. So here’s the invitation part…
Write or draw something as the storm passes through. Maybe by flashlight or candlelight while the power is out…maybe in between trips downstairs to bail out the basement. And then, let’s gather all that writing and art together to see what people created as Hurricane Irene passed through.
A little background… I’m a bit of a weather geek. I’m married to a meteorologist, so it’s not uncommon for cold fronts and funnel clouds to be dinner conversation at our house. And I wrote a book about storms;
So I’ll be writing this weekend. On my laptop, as long as the battery lasts, and then if the power goes out, I’ll be scribbling in my notebook.
Want to join me? Here’s what I’m thinking…
Create something – a poem, a description, a short story, a dialogue, a song, a comic, a sculpture, a drawing, a scarf, a piece of jewelry, a quick scene for a movie, a dance, a collage…whatever you want. Create it while you’re waiting for the storm or in the middle of the storm, or after the storm has passed. (If you’re not in the path of Irene, that’s okay…you can write about what you see on the news or hear from relatives & friends.)
Please keep your creations appropriate for audiences of all ages. (Obviously, you’re free to create whatever you want – but I want to make sure the posts that I share here are appropriate for teachers K-12 to share in classrooms. Thanks!)
Share what you created on your blog or your Facebook page or Google+ or wherever you share things online. If it’s art, you can share a photo. If you’re a kid, you can ask your teacher or librarian or a parent to share it for you. If you don’t have a blog or another place online to share writing, just come back here and paste what you wrote into a comment, and I’ll share it for you.
Include your city & state, plus the date and time you created the work.
Come back to this post and leave a comment with a link to what you shared. Also, let me know who you are (i.e. author of XYZ series, 5th grader in Quincy, Massachusetts, Librarian in the Outer Banks) Names are optional.
Next week, after the storm has passed, I’ll create a big post with links to all of our work that was “Created in the Path of Irene.” It’ll be kind of like a Hurricane Irene Online Museum.
Author/illustrator friends…when you post your storm writing & art, you may want to include a quick bio and information about your books; some folks who come to see your storm creations may not be familiar with your other work.
And everyone… please feel free to share this invitation far and wide – and teachers, I’d love it if you’d extend the invitation to your students, too! It would be great to see what younger writers come up with, and I think it would be really cool for kids to see their hurricane reflections shared alongside those of published authors.
