Full minds and roaming imaginations
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Big Bend Community College ASB Vice President Joshika Suresh helps a girl pick out a book at the Boys & Girls Club’s McGraw Family Clubhouse on Wednesday. The books were donated to the clubhouse by the BBCC ASB.
MOSES LAKE — “I love books!”
Those were the happy words late Wednesday of one grade-schooler at the Boys & Girls Club of the Columbia Basin’s McGraw Family Clubhouse on Paxson Avenue, right next to Park Orchard Elementary School, as he saw all the books available.
And while he could only take one, he was still excited.
“I love books!” he said again.
The books — Disney Star Wars titles and a collection of story books from FirstBook — were purchased by Big Bend Community College, which then decided to share them with the community, with children who need books.
So BBCC’s five Associated Student Body officers came down to the McGraw Family Clubhouse to help give the books away.
“This is the third one so far I’ve been to,” said Brynn Brown, ASB programming director.
Brown, a native of South Jordan, Utah who is at BBCC to play basketball, said she also helped with the previous giveaways earlier this year at North and Larson Heights.
“I love it, love seeing the kids come up and grab books and just be able to interact with the kids,” she said. “To share with them why I love reading and why they should too.”
Michelle Dano, the director of operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs in Moses Lake, said she’d been in contact with BBCC when she heard they had some books to give away. BBCC gave away books at Larson Heights and North in 2017, and so she was able to arrange the book giveaway this at the clubhouse as well.
“This is the first time we’ve done this here, and it’s great, the kids are loving it,” Dano said. “It gives them a change to have something other than a computer to look at for a change.”
Dano said a lot of the kids at the Boys & Girls Club in the afternoon come from homes where there are few, if any, books.
For the BBCC students, it’s also a way to give back.
“I think it’s important for kids to read,” said ASB President Cydney Schaapman. “A lot of these kids stay inside, especially when the weather starts getting gloomy.”
“It keeps their minds full and their imaginations roaming,” she added.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.