Santa Clarita Valley Disaster Coalition

Donated by the citizens of the Santa Clarita Valley, in northwest Los Angeles County, California, the books arrived in Louisiana a few days later, and were distributed to six elementary school libraries in Houma, a small community that expressed great appreciation.

The "Flood of Books" drive, spearheaded by KHTS Radio, the Santa Clarita Senior Center, the City of Santa Clarita, the Sulphur Springs Elementary School District, College of the Canyons, The Signal, the Santa Clarita Interfaith Council, Remax and others was a phenomenal success.

“Our initial goal was to reach 20,000 books,” said Carl Goldman, president of the Coalition. “We were able to get all four Santa Clarita elementary school districts involved (Sulphur Springs, Newhall, Saugus & Castaic) -- that’s 37 schools. Some private schools like Pinecrest joined in. Then a number of the high schools and College of the Canyons got involved. It just kept growing.”

Added Coalition member Diane Green: “So many others pitched in to help. The City let us stage the books in the old Santa Clarita Chamber offices. The Junior Blind of America in Los Angeles heard what we were doing and donated approximately 4,000 books in Braille and large print. All American Marketing donated 20,000 stickers saying, ‘From your friends in the Santa Clarita Valley,’ with room for donors to write in their names. It just kept snowballing.”

“The Junior ROTC from Valencia High School sent 16 cadets over and they helped us sort, count and box up the books for two days,” Goldman said. “On Monday and Tuesday, May 8 and 9, KHTS AM-1220 broadcast interviews from Houma, as the books arrive and were distributed to the six schools.”

Houma, Louisiana was spared the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. Located about 50 miles south of New Orleans, the town became a refuge for Katrina victims. When Hurricane Rita hit, a six- to eight-foot wall of salt water swept through the community, destroying much in its wake, including library books.

"In addition to the 97,000 books, the SCV Disaster Coalition has donated more than $13,500 as a credit at Borders Books in Valencia so the six Houma schools can fill in gaps that weren’t covered by the books we shipped to them," Goldman said. " Borders is contributing more than 20% to assist."

“It is such an amazing feeling,” added Sharon Bronson, a Coalition member and KHTS station manager. “Santa Clarita residents Frank and Karen Ball are from Houma -- that’s the connection. They flew ahead to Houma to meet the truck and assisted with the book distribution. They did on-air interviews as the books arrived. They’ll be emailing us pictures, which we’ll post here along with the interviews on the station’s Web site, hometownstation.com.”

“This was truly a team effort,” said Coalition member Adele Macpherson, also Community Services Superintendent for the City of Santa Clarita. “So many organizations participated. Friends of the Library donated books they didn’t sell during their book drive. It’s just another example of how our Valley can work together and support one another. We had high school kids boxing up books through the Junior ROTC, alongside seniors from the Santa Clarita Senior Center. Our hope is that if another disaster strikes our area, other communities will assist us in the same way we’re pitching in.”