Hawthorne community raises $11K for school's library

Hawthorne Elementary School parents, teachers and friends let out a collective cheer on Oct. 11, when they hit their goal to raise $10,000 to revamp the children's library — one day before the official end of their campaign. 

Since then, their generous network of supporters has kept giving … and giving … and giving. Since last Friday, Oct. 12, the fundraising total for its Hawthorne Library Reimagination campaign has topped $11,300.
 
Nearly 30 library "champions" made it all happen, mobilizing friends and family, neighbors and coworkers over email and on Facebook. 

In all, more than 170 people contributed to the campaign, which will help them:

• replace outdated non-fiction books

• add more copies of fiction favorites, such as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," which always have long wait lists.

• get technological presentation equipment, including a smartboard and document camera.

"The library is incredibly important to our students. Many of them do not have books at home and they look forward to library day with excitement and anticipation each week," said Katie Kribbs, a kindergarten teacher and Friends of Hawthorne PTA vice president. 

"With young children, it is our biggest job to inspire a love of reading and these high-interest books do that, be they Dora the Explorer or a non-fiction book filled with hairy spiders," Kribbs added.
 
A special thanks went to the staff at See Your Impact, who did a fabulous job helping them set up and run the campaign; and to Scott Oki, a former senior vice president at Microsoft, a Hawthorne alum, and See Your Impact co-founder, who contributed $1,500 in matching contributions to motivate their fundraisers.