Boyce Middle School donates books to partner school
Boyce Middle School principal Dan O’Rourke and Parent Teacher Council (PTC) president Shanna Caplan.
Some of the book titles purchased for the Boyce Middle School exchange
Boyce Middle School raised more than $1,100 through a school-wide coin drive. All of the donations were used to purchase over 100 books for the Clairton City School District.
The “All for Books” coin drive was held in partnership with the Boyce Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and the Scholastic Book Fair. Through a matching contribution, Scholastic Book Fairs will match the funds collected with a book donation to literacy nonprofits serving under-resourced communities.
Coin collection boxes were placed in classrooms as well as at the book fair, which was held during open house. As an added incentive, the fifth- and sixth-grade Boyce teams that collected the most change won extra recess time. The honors went to Team Comet, grade 5, and Team Wind, grade 6.
Shanna Caplan led the fair and drive. A Boyce PTO volunteer, she is the Parent Teacher Council (PTC) president.
“Shanna did a remarkable job,” principal Dan O’Rourke said. “Early in the process she informed me about the All for Books Program and asked that I consider potential partner schools.”
Through his doctoral program at Point Park University, O’Rourke met Tamara Allen-Thomas, who began her post as superintendent of the Clairton City School District in July 2022.
“She is such a driven, passionate, positive, student-centered educator who has high aspirations of impacting students in the Clairton community, so I reached out to her to see if she would like to participate, and she was ecstatic about the opportunity,” O’Rourke said. “The staff and students at Clairton were so appreciative to receive over 100 books to add to their library.”
With signatures from more than 30 students, the thank-you card from the students and staff at Clairton Elementary School is proudly displayed at Boyce Middle School.
O’Rourke believes that it is important to provide opportunities for students to learn about the value and importance of helping others by demonstrating kindness and selflessness.
“I am so proud of all of the community service projects that occur at Boyce,” he said. “Staff, students and the community are excited to participate in these projects, and the responses are overwhelmingly positive.”
This autumn, Ben Franklin Elementary School had a Book Blast event to celebrate the school’s raising of more than $23,000 during its book drive.
The drive allowed the school to buy 1900 titles, which were then distributed to each child at the school. Each Franklin student walked away with between three to 10 titles to increase their home? libraries.
The book drive’s incredible success also allowed the school to donate $1600 to its Parent Teacher Organization.
“Literacy is the foundation of learning and it is just so important for our students to read as often as possible,” said Principal Teresa Doumont.
According to Doumont,? the unfortunate reality is? that not all students have the same internet access, parental involvement, library access, etc. That, she says, is why events like this one are so important.
“This allows our families to add to their current libraries or to start new ones and we are very proud of that,” she said.