Yorkville Intermediate School sent 1,008 used books to Appalachia Kentucky, and the rural community without a formal library recently sent back its gratitude.

The books were donated in December courtesy of a book drive that Yorkville Intermediate School Specialist Karen Gottschalk conducts every year. She started te book drive back in 1996 as a way to get children to start reading again.

“It amazes me to know how many kids don’t know nursery rhymes, how many kids don’t read anymore, and don’t have an interest to read. I just wanted kids to have access to books,” Gottschalk said.

 When Gottschalk first started the book drive, she donated 890 books to the Head Start location in Yorkville, and then allowed each student at Yorkville Intermediate School to come into her classroom to choose a book.

 Since then, Gottschalk still donates books to Head Start, but has expanded to donating a large portion of the books nationwide. This year, it was through an organization called A Lasting World, a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate, inspire and promote long-term care for the Earth and its inhabitants.  

 The organization’s founders delivered the contributions personally to the coal-mining town in Kentucky just in time for holidays.

 “This is what this book drive is all about: giving books to children who don’t have them,” Gottschalk said. “[Appalachia] is a place that desperately needs them.”

 The feedback that Gottschalk received from the founders of A Lasting World, and from those who received the books, is astounding. 

 “The people who received [the] donations were overwhelmed by [the] generosity," wrote Linda Bartlett and Wen Marcec, who are the founders of A Lasting World. "Many of these children suffer from low self-esteem and have other emotional issues. You have given them hope for the future.”

 The parent of a child who received books wrote:

 “I don’t know what to say—you made Christmas extra special for my family. We would not have had anything under the tree at all if it weren’t for you. I promise I will do a good deed for someone else because you have done this for us.”

Along with a letter of gratitude, the founders also included numerous photographs of the homes in which the donated books are now enjoyed.  The images display houses that appear to be abandoned, trailer homes with boarded up windows, and a mobile home that sits along a deserted road.

 “This one really strikes me,” Gottschalk said as she points at the small mobile home. “People actually live here.”

 Gottschalk says that she would love to donate books to A Lasting World again next year.

 “My hope is to receive even more books, so that I can split them between different communities that are in need," Gottschalk said. "It really does make a difference.”