GiveAway replaces books lost in the fire

FALLBROOK — The Builder’s Club at Potter Junior High School recently collected and gave away donated books to families who lost their homes in the Rice Canyon Fire.

The project was coordinated to have the GiveAway Day in conjunction with the National Education Association’s celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, called Read Across America.

Beginning in January, homeroom classes gathered books from their own shelves and from public donors. Books for all ages and of all genres were accepted.

One box of newly purchased books came from as far away as northern California. A “friend of a friend” heard about the project and ordered books from Amazon.com.

In total, more than 4,500 gently used and new books were collected.

In the three days leading up to GiveAway Day, Builder’s Club members and other volunteers came to the auditorium on their lunch breaks and after school to sort books onto tables marked by genre.

Only 16 families came to the GiveAway, but each was touched by the generosity of the community.

Builder’s Club members encouraged families to browse and take as many boxes of books as they wanted and then helped carry the books to their cars.

One family of seven was there for the entire four hours of the GiveAway and left with more than a dozen boxes for their family of readers.