Hugs and new books: Rebuilding after a fire

The star of meet-the-teacher night at Elk Valley Elementary School in Lake City, Pa., could easily have been the 4,000 brand-new library books or the table piled high with free take-home titles—but it was neither. The shiny new additions were eclipsed by one thing: hugs from the Elk Valley librarian, Melissa Koma. Eager kindergartners; returning sixth-graders; high school students dropping in; and former students, now parents themselves, all had smiles and hugs for Mrs. Koma. She greeted them all by name, asked about siblings, and marveled at how much they had grown.

In return, students peppered her with questions: What were their new teachers like? Were there any new books about sharks? (There were.) One former student, now a high school football player who has outgrown Mrs. Koma by several inches, wanted to know what happened to the tiered risers that once sat in front of the windows.

“I had to get rid of them after the fire,” Koma answered.

Everyone knows what she means by “the fire.” Two years ago, heating lamps warming baby chicks in a first-grade classroom sparked a blaze. Smoke and ash damaged an entire wing of the school, destroyed about half of the library’s collection and took out Koma’s personal collection of books, some of which were inscribed by family members for her own children.

“The loss felt so personal,” she says. “We all felt it.”

When AFT President Randi Weingarten heard the news, she donated $20,000 from the union’s Reading Opens the World initiative, which has provided more than 2 million free books nationwide since its 2021 launch. With those funds, Koma purchased 4,000 new titles from First Book, AFT’s longtime partner, that not only rebuilt the library’s collection but also revitalized it with contemporary authors, STEM collections, classroom sets, graphic novels, and student favorites like Mo Willems’ beloved Pigeon series and—of course—books about sharks. At meet-the-teacher night, not a single title disappointed.

Older siblings guided younger ones toward just-right picks: “Here’s one you can read all by yourself!” or “Look, a book about baseball.” A big sister negotiated with her little sister, persuading her to leave with just one tractor book instead of the entire stack.

The evening underscored that Elk Valley is so much more than a school. Parents clustered by the book table to chat about upcoming birthday parties and carpools, while the high school women’s soccer team handed out bags and bookmarks, and the men’s team moved boxes of AFT- and First Book–donated Legos. Grandparents settled into chairs to read aloud at the urging of eager little ones, and best friends had to be coaxed out the door with reminders they’d see each other tomorrow. And everyone wanted to know what Mrs. Koma thought of their book choice.

“Oh, that’s a good one,” she would say. “You’re really going to like it.”

With stacks of new books as the backdrop, Elk Valley showed that public schools and libraries are not only centers of learning but also the beating hearts of their communities.

That is why, says AFT Pennsylvania President Wendy G. Coleman, restocking damaged libraries and putting free books in the hands of kids is union work.

“A union is its own community, and we are also responsible members of the communities where we live and work,” she says. “We lift up everyone around us; we help rebuild after tragedies. People often mistake unions for organizations that only care about wages and benefits, but we are so much more. Unions help in every aspect of our lives and our communities. The children here obviously deserve this beautiful library, and the fact that we could help make that possible for them—that’s something wonderful.”

Especially in a place like Girard County, where Elk Valley is located.

“We are 60 percent low income in this community,” says Girard Federation of Teachers President and high school government teacher Matt Mikovich. “A lot of these kids tonight might be picking up their first book to take home and keep. That might encourage parents to start reading with them, too. Our goal is to teach these kids to survive in the real world with life skills, and literacy is one of the best life skills you can get. If we can give them a book to kickstart that, then I feel we’re getting closer to that goal.”

Superintendent David Koma (David and Melissa Koma, who both attended Elk Valley Elementary themselves, have been married nearly 30 years) agrees.

“Putting books in the hands of children is critical,” he says. “Restoring this library was important for literacy, but it was also connected to the fact that we needed to update our circulation. These books are contemporary and in pristine condition. The goal is to get kids to read as early as possible, so we are always doing everything we can to develop literacy skills. The more books we can get in the hands of kids, the greater success they’re going to see.”

For Paul Ebert, the father of two Elk Valley students, the new books were a welcome addition to a growing home library.

“Coming to the library is one of their favorite special classes,” Ebert says. “They love to take home books. Sometimes we have trouble getting them back.”

Ebert’s oldest, who just started reading the Harry Potter series at home, chose to take home a book about his favorite subject: sharks.

By the end of the night, the free-book table was nearly cleared out. A few titles had even gone missing from the brand-new library shelves—but Mrs. Koma didn’t see that as a problem.

“It’s a book in the hands of a child,” she says.

[Melanie Boyer]