After seeing the devastation in Houston following Hurricane Harvey and now Hurricane Irma in Florida, Bright families wanted to help. After all, community service is an important part of the learning experience at Bright.

Many organizations have been working nonstop to help hurricane victims, and recovery efforts will take many weeks, months and perhaps years.

The Bright School is joining the cause by collecting gently-used books through September 27.  The drive kicked off Monday with involved students making the announcement in the morning meeting.

The school wanted to contribute in a way that would make sense to its own students and be long-lasting. Kindergartner Destinee Harris had the solution when she asked her mother, Debbie, “what are the kids going to do without books?” when she realized many homes were flooded and most items, including books, were ruined. The Harris family researched how they could help and found Books Between Kids, a non-profit organization in Houston that provides books to at-risk children to build their own home libraries. So moved by the experience, the Harris family created Destinee’s Gift Inc. for this cause and others to follow.

School counselor Nicole Smith fielded several queries from students about how they could help hurricane victims. Fourth grader Jim Bradshaw jumped into action and ordered posters for the book drive. Classmates Hadley Golden, Soleigh Kueter, Arwyn LaRock, Petra Lund and Ella Claire Stalvey joined the effort. The fourth graders will collect books from each classroom every morning of the drive.

Once all the books are collected, the books will be shipped to temporary schools in Houston that have been set up for children relocated from their damaged schools. After the area has recovered, children will be able to take home the donated books.

UPDATE: The school collected 1,357 books, which were shipped via truck to Houston on October 4. Thank you!