Making a difference together

SPARTA — Sparta Middle School sixth grade students from the Amber Team, with the encouragement of ancient civilization teacher Denise Garagliano collected children’s books for under privileged students.

The students donated their own gently used and new books appropriate for children with various reading levels.

Garagliano had an initial goal of collecting 500 books. The excitement of watching the pile of donated books in her classroom spurred more donations. In the end, she was able to collect 1,466 books.

On June 5 Garagliano joined with some Tilly’s Kids Volunteers to deliver the books to South Seventeenth Street Elementary School in Newark. The school serves children from kindergarten to eighth grade. The school is designated as a 100 percent free lunch school and many of the children from the school have limited or no access to reading materials during the summer months. The team was able to give approximately 500 students at the school two books each for summer reading.

During the process of helping the children chose books, Garagliano was touched by one little girl in particular. The little girl shared with her that while she always wanted to read at home with her mom, she was unable to because she did not have any books at home. She was so excited to bring home her very first books to show her mom.

Due to the success of this project, Garagliano hopes to continue it during the next school year. “I am very blessed to be in the company of such wonderful students and parents who donated more than just books to this cause, but personal time, money, and energy at such a busy time of the school year. Thank you for allowing me to see this vision through and make a huge difference in the life of a young child,” she said.