onoring

West Bloomfields
Bob Pickett
spruces the
computer area.

Temple Israel members pitch in to help site
0 their former Sunday school in Detroit.

LISA FEIN

Special to the Jewish News

C

Franklin's Audrey Farber straightens a bookshelf.

Katy Newman has a laugh with Bagley librarian
Catherine Collins.

Danny Deutsch, 9,
and brother Lonny,
7, along with friend
Matthew Fagan, 9,
all of Farmington
Hills, wash chairs.

leaning the new
media center at
Detroit's Bagley
Elementary
School was one of Temple
Israel's Amazin' Mitzvah
Day social action projects.
Fifteen volunteers pitched in
on April 28.
The temple's relationship
with Bagley School sprang
out of a class reunion two
years ago. Many temple
members attended Bagley
for their Sunday school
classes. The school in north-
west Detroit is on Curtis, between Livernois and
Wyoming. After the reunion-goers toured Bagley,
they offered to help their alma mater in any way
possible.
Bagley's Catherine Collins appreciated the
group's help.
"I was the third librarian hired in the last five
years," Collins said. "The library hasn't been used
in three years. Some of the books on the library's
shelves were from the 1960s, others were lost and
some had been miscataloged."
She said the library has changed into a media
center with the addition of a computer and many
new books. Outdated books were taken off shelves
a few weeks before Amazin' Mitzvah Day and sort-
ed into boxes. Bagley students then gave the books
a good home.
"We want to bring Bagley's media center into
the 21st century" says Bloomfield Hills' Katy
Newman, a Temple Israel library volunteer. "We
want to get
it to the
point of a
fully func-
tioning
library."
She said
the temple
held a
Bagley
fund-raiser

at Borders Books & Music. When temple members
bought books on two special days, a percentage of
the receipts were earmarked for Bagley School to
raise money for the computer and the new books.
"The volunteers at Temple Israel have been a
godsend to Bagley School, the kids that attend here
and our library," Collins said.
On Mitzvah Day, 15 temple volunteers physical-
ly cleaned the library, including the books, shelves
and floor. They set up a reading area for the chil-
dren and also processed new books by cataloging
and getting them ready to be put on the shelves.
In addition to Amazin' Mitzvah Day, Temple
Israel volunteers, many from the Jewish
Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit's
Detroit Jewish Literacy Coalition, have been visit-
ing the school and reading books to the students.
West Bloomfield's Mari Kaftan, Temple Israel's
Amazin' Mitzvah Day site captain, said, "DJLC
draws volunteers from many different organiza-
tions. Some people read to students while others
tutor." Volunteers usually read to the students in
grades 1-3; Collins reads to the children in grades
4-6.
Last year, stories were read about the use of
quilts, since they have been used differently in both
Jewish and African American cultures.
"We learned about each other's cultures while
reading these books to the children," Newman
said. Patricia Polacco's book The Keeping Quilt is a
Jewish book about a quilt used as a chuppah (wed-
ding canopy). African American history books that
were read to the students explained about quilts
being used as signposts for escaping slaves during
the Underground Railroad.
Besides reading about the use of quilts last year,
the entire school of 600 students (99 percent of
them, African American) participated in making
one. All students had a square relating to their fam-
ilies or themselves. The art classes made the actual
squares for the quilt.
"The quilt is six panels long and will be dis-
played on three banks of library window valances
and outside the library," Collins said.
"We got a lot accomplished," Kaftan said.
"Amazin' Mitzvah. Day was very rewarding. It is
nice to see the effects of work we put in. I hope it
will last a long time and help create a positive envi-
ronment for the students so they can feel good
about their library." ❑

3.11

5/10
2002

47