Grieving Father Donates Books to School Library
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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 05/09/2007
A father who lost his two young children and wife to a drunk motorist has donated 4,000 books to the Denver public schools.
Frank Bingham recently made his first trip back to Lincoln Elementary School since his wife, Becca, and their children, Macie, four, and Garrison, two, were tragically struck and killed by a motorist last fall. Bingham stopped at the school library to see the results of a huge community book drive he initiated in his family's name.
"Instead of flower donations, he asked for book donations, so people around the city donated," explains Kathy Rozmiarek, a librarian at Lincoln Elementary, where Macie was a preschooler.
The project, Bingham Books, has continued to grow, and may become an ongoing charity. "The community was devastated." says Rozmiarek. "They didn't know what to do, so the books just started pouring in."
An initial 4,000 new books were collected in the names of his family members; and Rozmiarek was invited to select 500 new titles for her preschool-to-fifth-grade school, including titles such as Anna Michaels's Best Friends (Harcourt, 2004).
