THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995 TAG: 9512190104
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
There was cause for celebration at the place formerly known as Celebration Station.
The happiness happened at the former Virginia Beach shopping center now occupied by Princess Anne High School, thanks to the Chesapeake Reading Council, a group of teachers, administrators, parents, student teachers and students whose aim is to promote literacy in Chesapeake.
This time their concern spilled over into Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach's Princess Anne High School was severely damaged by arson Sept. 1, just days before the beginning of the school year. The fire destroyed years of school records along with educational, personnel and student information. In addition, many textbooks and most of the books in the school library were lost because of fire, water and smoke damage.
But Christmas came early for the high school. On Dec. 1 hundreds of new books began to pour into the school.
Judy Bonner, head of the school's business department, clutched a computer textbook as if it were a teddy bear.
Edwina Langaster, English Department chair, was all smiles as she unpacked copies of Homer's ``Odyssey,'' and scores of English dictionaries. Her colleague, Foreign Language Department Chair Claudia Cosimano, shared Langaster's reason to smile as she unpacked foreign language dictionaries and test practice books.
Looking on, also smiling like kids at Christmas, were assistant principals Nell Richardson and Barbara Saulsberry.
The smiles were directed toward Amy Dyer and Brenda Hobbs, Chesapeake teachers representing the Chesapeake Reading Council.
For its 1995-96 community service project, the group of more than 800 Chesapeake teachers and citizens rallied around Princess Anne's plight and raised $1,850 to purchase new books for the school's library.
Last year the Reading Council held a citywide book collection to gather new reading books for the Norfolk-based Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
This year it turned its attention to Princess Anne High.
``Our hearts go out to you,'' Dyer, president of the Chesapeake Reading Council and a reading resource teacher at Rena B. Wright Primary School, said to the gathered administrators and department heads. ``When we heard the news we were all shocked and saddened. We felt it was like a death in the family.''
``You are all so very courageous and still so positive,'' said Hobbs, a third-grade teacher at Rena B. Wright and a member of the Chesapeake Reading Council's Board of Directors.
``This has not been easy,'' Saulsberry said about her school's problems.
``And it still isn't easy,'' Richardson added.
``But this is such a very good way to encourage us,'' Saulsberry said as her other colleagues nodded vigorously in agreement.
``Sometimes we feel sorry for ourselves,'' Cosimano said, ``but then these things happen.''
What ``happened'' was a Chesapeake-wide campaign that began in September, Dyer said.
``We came up with the idea to help Princess Anne, and it was blessed by the school administration,'' she said. ``Everybody in Chesapeake thought it was the right thing to do. With many of us being teachers and supporting reading and literacy, we thought buying library, text and reference books for Princess Anne High was a natural.
``Soon news of our campaign spread through the city. The response was overwhelming. It was endorsed by everybody. And we found a lot of Chesapeake teachers were Princess Anne High graduates.''
One Princess Anne alumna, Cheryl Maynard, a teacher at Butts Road Intermediate School, acted as go-between. She contacted Princess Anne High principal Patricia Griffin, who compiled a book wish list for the Reading Council to use.
The council then contacted Carol McDonald, whose children graduated from Princess Anne and who owns and operates the Once Upon A Time children's book store at Willis Wayside. McDonald was able to stretch the fund money raised by the council by purchasing the books at a 30 percent discount and contributing more titles on her own.
The money used to buy the books was collected throughout Chesapeake.
``We were hoping for maybe $500,'' Hobbs said. ``We thought that was a pie-in-the-sky amount. We never dreamed we'd get this kind of response.''
Funds were raised through a variety of ways left up to each individual school. Some staged raffles, others held silent auctions, and still more simply collected donations from students, teachers and school staff.
The school that contributed the most was Hickory Elementary School, which raised $470 through change and lunch money contributions. The second largest was Butts Road Primary School, which kicked in $415 in memory of a beloved teacher.
``They raised the money in memory of Carol Murden, who was a teacher's assistant at the school for 22 years,'' Dyer said. ``She was also a Princess High graduate.''
Dyer and Hobbs said the citywide response hasn't abated. More money is expected to come in over the next few weeks for additional book purchases.
``To have another city go to this much trouble for us is really something,'' Cosimano said.
``It just shows the good in people,'' Bonner added. ``This makes our day.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Amy Dyer, left, and Brenda Hobbs look at books for Princess Anne
High.
by CNB