Murray Students Share A Bit of Themselves With Books

by Joan Rosen, Mamaroneck School District

Children, administrators, and teachers from Mamaroneck and Bronx Charter come together over boxes of books gathered by the Murray Avenue community.

(December 23, 2004) Just in time for the holidays, Murray students gathered, distributed and shared their favorite books with students of a new Bronx charter school. On Monday, December 20, Murray Avenue second and third graders were on hand to personally deliver over 1600 books collected by the Murray community to students from the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning. The books were collected in the second annual book drive sponsored by the Community Outreach Committee of the Murray Avenue PTA. Each student at Murray Avenue was asked to pick one of his or her own cherished books to donate.

The response from the Murray community was overwhelming, according to Amy Kreisberg, the PTA coordinator of the drive. “In addition to the quantity, the quality and variety of books collected is a tribute to the generosity and spirit of the Murray community”.

A contingent of faculty and students from the Bronx Charter School came to Murray Avenue to pick up the books. The children immediately gravitated to books that they wanted to read or were already their favorites. The students from both schools broke up into pairs and shared their favorite stories with each other.

Paula Hajar, founder of the Bronx Charter School discusses book choices.

Paula Hajar, a founder of the Bronx Charter School and a former Director of Programs and Testing for Mamaroneck School District, was excited about the books but also about the visit to Murray for her students, two first graders and five second graders. Ms. Hajar observed that her students are all new readers, and sharing the pleasure of reading with others would “explode” that pleasure. She also said that bringing her students to a big school would “open up their horizons and the world of possibilities ahead of them.” She was personally touched because the Murray parents and children had “chosen to give of themselves by giving books to a growing school instead of money, which made the gift more meaningful.”

Bronx Charter opened just last year with 50 first graders. This year, with the addition of another new class of first graders, the school has 100 students. They hope to grow each year to eventually have about 250 students in grades 1 to 5. The donation of books from Murray Avenue will triple the number of titles in their school library. The Director of the School, Shubert Jacobs, and PTA President, Prema Thompson, were also at Murray to represent their school.

After sharing a snack of cookies and juice, the students from Bronx Charter departed with new books and the possibility of new friends. The children said they wanted to continue the relationship and have agreed to become pen pals with some Murray second graders.

Amy Kreisberg helped with this article.

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