Each year, the West Grayson Retired School Personnel Association (WGRSPA) hosts a book drive that provides area third graders with a free book. This year’s drive began last Friday at S&S Elementary.
The decades-long program was started by Whitesboro’s Susie Meals and enables the WGRSPA to donate newly published books and classical novels to students at S&S, Whitesboro, Collinsville and Tioga. The WGRSPA partners with third grade teachers and reading specialists to help choose the book that each school will receive. Once the books are chosen, the organization raises money to donate the books to each school. Fundraisers include community events like the pumpkin project, the sale of hand-painted pumpkins used for fall décor.
The WGRSPA partners with high schools in each area, who provide upperclassmen from various student organizations (student council, Family Careers and Community Leaders of America [FCCLA], athletics, etc.) to come and read the book with the third graders. For S&S, the WGRSPA ordered 72 books to ensure that each student, teacher and librarian would receive a copy.
The third-grade students gathered in the gym and were divided into small groups. Each group was paired with at least one high school student who led a discussion on the first three chapters of their book, "The Wild Robot Escapes," by New York Times best-selling author Peter Brown. The second in the Wild Robot series, this sequel tells the tale of Robot Roz as she tries to survive the challenges of a civilized world and explores what happens when nature and technology collide.
Representatives from WGRSPA will meet with students at other schools as schedules permit.