TULANE TALK

November 22, 2002

Good Morning:

There was a new addition (or should I say an old friend?) in my office when I returned last week: a Book Giving Tree. Trees such as this one are located throughout campus, including the first floors of the J. Bennett Johnston and Tidewater Buildings, the University Center and the Primate Center. These trees are filled with ornaments that bear the names of nearly 1,200 New Orleans children who participate in Tulane’s student-led after school and weekend reading programs. By selecting an ornament from the tree and buying a book appropriate to the child’s age and interests, you can give a gift that will help encourage a lifetime of reading. Participants are asked to turn in their books by December 3 to Tulane University Community Services, Room 216 of the University Center.

This is the first year the program will also provide books on tape for children who are not reading at their grade level. Three hundred ornaments have been designated for this special project and are due back to Community Services today so that participating students can use their Thanksgiving break to record the books.

The Book Giving Tree Project began three years ago when Sarah Nangle, a Tulane molecular and cellular biology graduate student and a volunteer at Iberville Elementary School, saw a need to provide books for children who did not have the means to buy their own. What started small has grown bigger and bigger and now is a primary way for Tulane to celebrate the holiday season as a community. So please support this program as enthusiastically as you have in the years past. As Sarah likes to remind people, “If there’s one ornament left on the tree, it means that a child does not get a book.” For the location of all Book Giving trees on campus and more information on the project visit http://www2.tulane.edu/bk_tree_project.cfm.

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving break next week. I hope you use the Thanksgiving weekend to relax and enjoy time with family and friends. Tulane Talk, but not its author, is going to take the whole week off.