Willow Springs Elementary - Killeen, TX
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Willow Springs Elementary in Killeen, Texas
We are a PK to 5th grade Title 1 elementary school in Killeen, Texas. Killeen is home to the largest military base in the world, Fort Hood. The majority of our students have parents who are soldiers who are facing yet another deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Some families have both parents in the military, and those students experience rotating deployments of their parents, with at least one parent deployed every year. We have over 850 students at our school, with approximately 62% of our students coming from low income families that are struggling in these hard financial times.
The deployments are an important indication of the needs of our students; we need a diverse amount of books in our library that students can relate to. Our school is our students' second home. The students are very close to their teachers because of the deployments of the parents and also the single-family homes that are prevalent in our area. Reading is a key factor in the relationship between teacher and child. We are striving to offer a library filled with a diverse, interesting books. Our kids face the stark realities every day - death, going to war, shootings, and many other things that most children do not have to face. The teachers use the books to fill the students' minds with other things besides their every day worries and to use the books to explain the positive sides of life.
The tragedy at Fort Hood has hit our military community hard. The students and families of our school would be so excited to get some good news in our area, and the book donation would be just the thing we need. We would love to be able to get more books into the hands of the students. Please consider donating your credits to us. We are Army proud!
- Linda Olson, Principal
"We Seek Excellence and Succeed"
We received 4 boxes of 250 books each (at least that's what the boxes were marked, I didn't count them). There was a nice variety, including some Christmas books. I started handing them out to the teachers by putting them in their mailboxes, with a note that explained where the books came from & the PBS Internet address. I encouraged them to go online to see what was on the site. I gave each teacher approximately 12 to 15 books with directions to either put them in their class library for the students, or to give them directly to the students as prizes - their choice. The remainder of the books will be given to the students as prizes for different library events.
Thank you so much for doing this for our school! It has just been amazing and so many of the students have come and said thank you to me for the books they've been getting - a lot of the teachers chose to give them to the students as gifts.
Denene Barnes :)