La Conner residents buy books for elementary school students

It’s one thing to put your money where your mouth is.

In La Conner, people often put their money where their hearts are.

And the most recent example of a heartfelt investment here, in this case benefiting La Conner elementary students, is one designed to foster young inquisitive minds well into the future.

Responding to a request La Conner elementary dyslexia intervention specialist Jen Gudmundson posted on social media seeking donations to help purchase books for local students, area residents responded almost immediately to the tune of over $1,000.

Those donated funds made it possible for the school to provide $15 gift certificates to about 70 kindergarten through fifth grade students for purchases at the recent campus book fair.

“It was breaking my heart,” Gudmundson told the Weekly News, “to watch the classes come through the book fair only to have some students excited about having money in their pocket to purchase books and fun things while others could only look longingly at the shiny new books and watch the purchasers show everyone else what they bought.”

That led Gudmundson to post her request that Friday, Oct. 15.

“Over the weekend,” Gudmundson said, “about 30 people responded saying they would like to donate.”

The cause, she said, was quickly bolstered by school district librarian Beth Clothier.

“So, Monday morning,” said Gudmundson, “Beth and I scrambled to figure out how to accept donations in such a way to benefit the most kids.

Scholastic Books had a digital wallet that we could put all the funds into and then we could hand out certificates to students.

“We decided that $15 was a healthy amount to purchase almost any book at the fair,” Gudmundson said.

Clothier joined Gudmundson in expressing appreciation for the community’s support in literally putting books in the hands of students.

“This means we were able to offer $15 gift certificates to approximately one-third of our (elementary) student population,” Clothier said.

Clothier also heaped praise on Gudmundson.

“She was the person who got the whole thing rolling,” said Clothier. “She asked the question on a community Facebook page and received an overwhelming response. We figured out a mechanism by which to collect the money and distribute it to the kids and the donations just kept coming all through the week.”

Gudmundson said the local donors pointed out differences between students owning a book rather than having to borrow one, as well as the advantages of buying a new book as opposed to being gifted one that has been used.

“There is a difference,” insisted Gudmundson, an advocate of early language skills development, a nearly fool-proof blueprint for predicting future reading skills and attitudes.

“Literacy at home,” she said, “is a key.”

Meanwhile, there was no challenge reading the expressions of students making their book fair purchases.

“Seeing the looks of wonder on some faces, the huge smiles on others and even the uncertainty on others,” Gudmundson said, “made for a very exciting and beautiful week.”