Beaverton, Woodburn divvy up books
Centennial Chapter 113 was the first OSEA chapter to pull off a First Book registration drive in 2014 and their example inspired members of Beaverton Chapter 48 and Woodburn Chapter 25 to follow their example.
Members of Beaverton Chapter 48’s First Book committee are joined by OSEA organizers and volunteers for a group photo during the June 4 book distribution. The committee consists of Co-Chair Dianna Hess (far left), LisaKaren Donnelly (second from left), Debbie Keller (center) and Co-Chair Anna Taylor (second from right).
“I was introduced to First Book at Conference when the Centennial drive was underway,” said Anna Taylor, a co-chair of Beaverton’s First Book committee. “The idea of having free books to give away to students that ordinarily wouldn’t have access to owning their own was so inspiring.”
Woodburn Co-Vice President Stacy Yelton helped out with the Centennial drive and decided she wanted to get her chapter involved.
“To see how happy the kids and families (in Centennial) were picking out books got me excited, and I wanted to bring this excitement to Woodburn,” Yelton said.
But when it came to registering people with First Book, both chapters found it was difficult to gather the 2,000 signatures necessary to qualify for a truckload of books.
“Many of the people we talked to were hesitant to sign up for anything,” Yelton said. “Also, many of our community members don’t have access to computers or email.”
Taylor and her fellow committee members in Beaverton also encountered resistance to their project.
“It took over a year to get 1,000 registrations,” Taylor said. “Gratefully, Woodburn was in a similar place, so we were able to combine our campaigns.”
Woodburn Chapter Co-Vice President Stacy Yelton, left, and French Prairie Middle School teacher Jessica Triplett.
As a result, the two chapters split a truckload of books between them and held separate sorting and distribution events on June 3 and 4. Each chapter turned out hundreds of volunteers.
“I was so impressed and inspired by the turn out of our volunteers and the amazing work they did,” Taylor said. She was also amazed by the number of people who came to get books to take back to their sites.
“When 2 p.m. came, I looked back into the gym where the floor had been covered with books, and (I was amazed) there was not a trace of what we had done,” Taylor said.
Both Yelton and Taylor said they would want to get involved in another First Book drive; however, Yelton said she needed “time to recover from this one.”
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