Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The Kindness of Strangers

"I have always dependeded on the kindness of strangers." Blanche Dubois/Tennesee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire"

I am always amazed when I am confronted by the generousity of people. This year I will be opening my school using the theme "Welcome to Wonderland", and promoting an all school read of Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. On the calib listserv I made a request that if anyone had an extra copy, to send it to me. When I got a response back from Scott Bloom,a sales rep for Greenwood publishing, he responded back, not as a sales rep, but as a man with an idea. He proceeded to tell me that in memory of a teacher, Neola Sommerville(1906-2001), who taught with his mother in the San Jose Unified School District, that he was donating 30 Copies of Alice for my program.

I am truly overwhelmed by this gesture. This is one of those PASS IT FORWARD moments.
So Neola Sommerville, I salute your memory!

2 comments:

Bookworm said...

Beautiful story, thanks for sharing.

Mrs. GRU said...

To go along with your Wonderland theme, have you seen the comic book series by Tommy Kovac? I have to brag because Tommy was formerly my Library Technician at Orangeview Junior High and is still keeping his day job -- now at another school, Oxford Academy. Wonderland is published by slave labor graphics and will be published as a graphic novel by Disney when the series is complete. Issues 1-4 are currently avaiable and are age appropriate for junior high.