Legend For Life: Kay Gooch
This morning I had the wonderful pleasure of catching up with one of our past Legends, Kay Gooch. Kay was actually our very first Legend, recognized for her tremendous effort in raising funds for BookSpring. BookSpring is an Austin-based nonprofit organization that instills children and their parents with a love of reading and promotes books as a means to success.
Kay is the librarian at Gullet Elementary School here in Austin, Texas. She told me some great stories about the school’s recent involvement in the 2012 BookSpring Read-A-Thon. The Read-A-Thon is a yearly event hosted by BookSpring, to support their literacy programs. BookSpring has services located in healthcare clinics, preschool centers, schools and home based parenting programs of their nonprofit partners. The Gullett community raised over $25,000 for BookSpring this year, more than any other school in Central Texas!
Kay had promised the Gullett Geckos that if they won the Read-A-Thon, she would greet them from the roof of the building one morning, and so she did. On a beautiful spring morning, she climbed up on the roof with their BookSpring trophy in tow and greeted all the kids. Around 8am all the students came back outside for a school assembly, gathered under the giant oak tree. They were so proud of what they’d accomplished, Kay said. “We all cheered ourselves on for what a good job we’d done. It moved me to tears!”
Kay also said just how astounding it is, that such a small school could make such an impact. They raised enough for over 10,000 books for children in the Austin area! Kay and the Gullet Geckos are excited and gearing up for the next BookSpring Read-A-Thon, which will be taking place early in 2013. If you would like to be a part of what BookSpring is doing, feel free to visit their website!
