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PORT CHESTER, NY - Port Chester's Thomas Edison Elementary School held its "Green and White" book sale for students on Thursday morning outside the school gym. The sale, which ran from 9:00 a.m. to noon, aimed to ensure that every student left on Thursday with a new book in hand.
The event was organized by Manhattanville student teachers Laura Cirincione, Victoria Callanan, and Ryann Geldner, and is part of the students "legacy project" at the college.
According to Cirincione, the project began over a month and a half ago, and was inspired by a Scholastic Book Fair the school hosted in September.
"There were so many students that could only afford to buy bookmarks or erasers," Cirincione said, "So we decided it would be good idea to hold a book sale that every student could afford".
The student teachers collected over 700 "gently used" books from friends, families, current and former teachers, and other community organizations. According to Callanan, the Armonk Public Library donated an entire box to the cause.
Books ranged in price from $3.00 to 25 cents, and students who didn't bring money were allowed to trade in an older book for a new one. Most of the time those trade-ins ended up in the hands of another student.
"We had one girl bring in ten books from home, and the distribute them to her classmates to trade in," Geldner said. "One student's trade-in is another student's treasure," added the school's Support Services Coordinator Maria Flores.
Flores talked at length about how the program fits with the school's identity as a "full service community school".
"We pride ourselves on utilizing every available resource to help support our students academic growth," Flores said, "Our partnership with the college has benefited our students in so many ways".
According to Flores, the school won't rest until every student has brought home a book that they are "excited about". Due to all the generous donations, the student teachers plan to continue the book sale tomorrow morning. All the remaining books that have not been sold will be donated to the school's library.
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