Katrina goodwill effort needs some wheels to complete the task
Some might call Sherry May's effort a tremendous act of goodwill.
She calls it a Catch-22.
May, an Elgin resident who runs the not-for-profit Go With Books, has for the past year collected thousands of books and supplies for needy Louisiana students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Expected at two education centers by Feb. 2, those materials are stuck in her Elgin garage, barring a minor miracle or a generous person.
Go With Books, incorporated in October, distributes unwanted books to needy communities around the country. It is unable to accept monetary donations because it hasn't yet been granted 501(c)(3) tax code status.
And, as a newly founded organization, Go With Books has no money to put toward a rental vehicle, which in total would cost hundreds.
"We're in a Catch-22," May said. "I thought (transporting the books) was going to be a no-brainer. Heck -- I can get a rental car for $15 a day."
Last June, Go With Books donated 7,000 books to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Juvenile Detention Center in South Dakota. Dawn Farris, Go With Books' secretary, persuaded her employer, Bridgestone/Firestone, to take the books to South Dakota in one of their big rigs.
"They put the stuff on a semi and trucked it at their cost for us. We drove to Rosebud and met the books there," May said.
May had planned to make the 16-hour drive to Louisiana Jan. 31. She is scheduled to deliver the books to Renaissance Village's Learning Center and the East Baton Rouge Parish Laboratory Academy Feb. 1 and 2.
A program director for GED Preparation Studies and Workforce Development at the College of DuPage, May also teaches adult education classes at Elgin Community College.
By contacting faculty members at Louisiana universities, she learned about the needs of different schools across the state, eventually deciding to help Renaissance Village and East Baton Rouge Parish Laboratory Academy.
Renaissance Village, the nation's largest trailer park 100 miles outside of New Orleans, houses hundreds of hurricane evacuees. Its learning center's after-school programs and adult literacy classes need books, pencils, markers, papers, glue sticks and crayons.
Just 10 miles away, East Baton Rouge Parish Laboratory Academy opened last August to accommodate a large influx of students to the area after Katrina.
Designed through a partnership between the East Baton Rouge Parish school system and nonprofit Advance Baton Rouge, the existing school occupies a six-classroom wing on Istrouma High School's second floor.
School officials said they hope to soon have books for each classroom, more for the library. They also need science lab materials, calculators, cameras and projectors.
"They're expecting the books. I've just been sitting here going, 'I've got to find a way,'" May said.
"If somebody owns a trucking company and is driving through Baton Rouge, or if we could get a discount on a truck … anything," she said. "But we're running out of time to figure this out."
May can be reached at smay88@hotmail.com or by calling (847)845-8065.