Marlboro second-graders make giving part of season

Marlboro second-graders
make giving part of season
By jeanette M. eng
Staff Writer

COURTESY OF MARLBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT Pupils in Andrea Bloom’s second-grade class at the Marlboro Elementary School, (l-r) Danielle Mermelstein, Cayla Sekuler, Sheenali Patel, Domenic Portera, Caroline Pennington and Raghav Gupta, hold up some of the books donated by children at the school that will be distributed to disadvantaged children in New Jersey during the holiday season.

MARLBORO — The holidays are the season for shopping, eating, collecting presents ... oh yes, and giving. Well, the second-graders at the Marlboro Elem-entary School, School Road West, certainly didn’t forget that fundamental part of this time of the year.

In a little less than two weeks, the children collected 86 books that will be distributed to disadvantaged children throughout the state by the New Jersey Library Association. The association’s Children’s Service Section sponsors this statewide program every year.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the children’s departments of the 11 libraries that comprise the Monmouth County Library System are participating in the "Books for Kids" drive.

"We send the word out through bookmarks, fliers and by setting up drives all over and we get a great response," said Jennifer King, librarian at the Marlboro Library, Wyncrest Road. "Last year we collected almost 400 books."

It was during a visit to the Marlboro Library when second-grade teacher Andrea Bloom noticed a flier about the book drive.

"Our school is very service-oriented, and I saw this as a great opportunity to have the kids do something that was relevant to them," Bloom said, referring to the children’s involvement in reading programs.

Second-grade teacher Tami Greenfield saw the drive as a chance to teach her students to give something back to the community.

Five second-grade classes at the school worked together on the book drive. In addition to pupils in the classes taught by Bloom and Greenfield, second-grade teachers Courtney Strehle, Deborah Schademann and Deborah Bullo also got their pupils involved in the project.

"I tell them about the volunteer work I did in high school and things I do now," Greenfield said. "I want to show them that grown-ups do what they are doing, too."

The children had to donate new books, so many of them had to do more than just grab something from their own collection at home.

"My mom gives me $6 for allowance. I use $2 for spending, $2 for savings and $2 for charity," said Grant Rybnicky, who donated two books. "I feel good because I was helping someone."

Haley Potter also did her share of sacrificing.

"I used the Barnes & Noble book certificate that my grandma gave me," Haley said.

Shir-el Teboul, who donated a series of Sesame Street books, was happy to say, "I would rather give them away."

On Dec. 6, King visited Marlboro Elementary School to pick up the donated books.

The books will be forwarded to the Long Branch Library, which in turn will distribute them to various charities and social service agencies. The books are given to less fortunate children throughout the county as holiday presents.

Anyone interested in joining the effort may visit the Marlboro Library for more information.