The Colorado Independent Publishers Association along with the Missouri Writers Guild is collecting books for the Joplin schools, which were nearly destroyed by the recent tornado. MWG president Deb Marshall said, “They have to replace books for K-12. The high school was a total loss, as was one middle school and one elementary. Another elementary and one additional middle school were major, but not total losses. They have also asked us to assist with helping to restore the Teacher Resource Center, which was totaled also. They’re looking for fiction, nonfiction and resource books.”
Books can be shipped directly by Media Mail to: Deb Marshall, 1203 Spartina Drive, Florissant, MO 63031. “They have no place to store anything yet, so we’re shipping to me until their Resource Librarian has her location established the third week of June, at which time we’ll make a delivery and she can begin to catalog. Anything they cannot use will be distributed to military families in the area. Joplin has a number of National Guard units that have been deployed on numerous occasions to both Iraq and Afghanistan.”
We are asking CIPA members to collect their new or gently used books and ship them to Deb at the address above.