I’ve never met Alys Culhane; she is a follower of the blog and an admirer of the Army Of Good. She personifies the Army Of Good.
She is the person who started the Bright Lights Book Project to get used, discarded, and recycled books from trash cans, libraries, and homes, and garbage dumps into the hands of students and schools, and people who can’t afford them.
She is a hero to me and, as this letter from her this morning demonstrates, a true friend:
She is sending $5,000 worth of books to Bishop Gibbons High School so they can be up-to-date and revamp their school library. These are contemporary books, saved and cleaned; most are brand new.
She is also sending a box of books to the Mansion for Gerry, the avid reader I’ve been writing about.
“You need some good news. This is the best I can do from so far away. Today we got ten boxes of books, media rate, out in the mail, and two flat rate boxes out in the mail. This was a superhuman effort on my part — I had a lot of project stuff going on this week. I didn’t think I could do it all, but I did. I feel perfect about this mail out.
Ten more boxes will be coming in mid-September when I get back from the Yukon.
The flat rate box of books for Gerry contains children’s books. If she goes through them fast or finds them not to her liking, I will soon send another box.
I am sorry that the media rate takes so long. I am confident that in the future, we’ll get grants that will allow us to send books at the regular postal rate.
No need to even reply to this message.”
Thanks, Alys; you have nothing to be sorry about. We are ever grateful to you for the work you have done.