8,000 books in five days’ time

CENTRAL VALLEY — Social media communication is playing a big, positive and quick role in helping Superstorm Sandy victims.

Just ask Suzanne Adler and Kristen Bohannon, two Smith Clove Elementary School first-grade teachers. They’ll tell you in just five days’ time, community members mobilized to collect and deliver more than 8,000 books to help a school in need.

Bohannon put a posting on her Facebook page on Nov. 5 asking if anyone knew any “Superstorm Sandy teachers” in need, adding there were people in the Monroe-Woodbury community who wanted to help.

Shortly after that posting, Bohannon’s friend’s cousin responded saying her sister works in the Moonachie, N.J., School District and its K-8 school was destroyed from the superstorm’s floods.

The Robert L. Craig School lost everything when a tidal surge triggered by Superstorm Sandy sent water overflowing a riverbank and gushing out of storm drains, the Associated Press reported. Water rose within the community to five feet in just 45 minutes.

‘More than pens and pencils’

“We talked about collecting school supplies and we talked about how books were destroyed,” said Bohannon. “We decided to get specific, let’s do more than pen and pencils.”

The initial book drive idea came from former teacher Clare Duffy. After quickly getting approval for their project, teachers set up a Facebook page letting their “friends” know what had been planned: A relief effort on Nov. 10 called “Rebuilding Schools One Book at a Time: Robert L. Craig School Book Drive.”

“We had bags and bags and baskets and boxes of books,” said Bohannon. “We were overwhelmed with community support.”

For example, The North Main and Central Valley School PTAs, who were in the midst of their annual book fairs, saw parents making additional purchases to benefit the Craig school. Patricia Murray, director of the forthcoming North Main student play, had her young actors bring books to donate at Saturday’s practice.

Joe Sienna, the school’s custodian, volunteered to load the 180 heavy boxes of books into the truck.

Melissa Quarles, the children’s librarian at the Monroe Free Library and a Moonachie native, brought boxes of books as did the Friends of the Monroe Free Library, which operates the seasonal Book Garden.

Even a third-grade class from the Robert A. Carter Elementary School in Middletown - which heard about the teachers’ plans via Facebook - collected 400 books in just a day’s time to support the relief effort.

Businesses involved as well

The business community also played a role. Lake Region Tires in Monroe offered Serigano a discount on a truck rental to get the books to a donated storage unit in Wood Ridge, N.J. When Tommy Sullivan, owner of Smith Seaman and Quackenbush Funeral Home in Monroe heard about that, he offered to pay for the cost of the truck rental.

These are only examples of the outpouring of community support, the two teachers noted, knowing there are so many others had an equally valuable role in making the day a success.

Adler praised the little students who assisted the group by arranging books in 30 separate categories.

“The kids were especially great,” she said. “At the end, it was like a well-oiled machine. Two of our students who aren’t the best readers knew where to sort the books. For the amount of work that got done there, there wasn’t that many people and they all worked hard.”

The relief effort even received $300 in gift cards so the Craig school teachers could buy specific titles.

“Even with gift cards, you’re never going to replenish the books you spent years collecting,” added Adler.

The teachers knew many organizations were holding collection drives this past weekend.

“I knew people were going to many places on Saturday to help,” said Adler. “But they still took time to come here. They didn’t give us garbage. They gave us their beloved books. I couldn’t have been happier.”

Adler and Bohannon drove the books last Sunday to two donated storage units in Wood Ridge, N.J. where they were again sorted to make it as easy as possible for future access.

For the short-term, the books will stay there until the Craig school gets resettled. Adler said she understood the plan to be to set up trailers on the school’s campus as quickly as possible for temporary classroom housing. The school will not reopen until next September, at the earliest.

Jill Mortimer, who has the dual role of Moonachie Boro School District superintendent and the school’s principal, did not return several requests for comment by press time.

But a posting Bohannon shared from her Facebook page summed up the feelings of teacher recipients.

“Thank you again for donating your time and energy to us,” the posting read. “What you did for us was amazing and incredibly generous. We haven’t had a minute as a staff to collect our thoughts as stress and worry infiltrates every aspect of our lives. We only want to help our community through this nightmare but while in the throes of it all find it difficult to stay afloat.... You did an amazing thing.”

The teachers said the event demonstrates the importance of the new ways people now communicate.

“The impact of social media, I don’t think this would have happened without Facebook,” added Bohannon. “The Internet, alone, is an amazing thing.”

- Nancy Kriz