Once again, General Assembly focuses its community service project on children and books. GA attendees can stop by the Empty Shelves booth in the Exhibit Hall and buy a book, feed a mind, and fill the Empty Shelves of Fall-Hamilton School's Library.

Fall-Hamilton Elementary School is an inner-city neighborhood school located in Nashville. It serves approximately 350 students in grades K-6 in an established yet racially diverse neighborhood surrounding the state fairgrounds. While the neighborhood is very stable, over 87% of the students are indigent and receive free breakfast and lunch each day. The school has an active PTA and support from several adopting organizations, including First UU of Nashville; however the financial support it receives is severely limited by its neighborhood's poverty.

Earlier this year, the library was purged of old books, some of which dated to the 1940s. The school administration and teachers would love to begin anew with a powerful reading program for its students. The books purchased by GA attendees will increase the current size of the library by approximately 60%, but more importantly will be the cornerstone of a new reading mastery program in the school called Accelerated Reader.

The Accelerated Reader program consists of a suite of books that have been specially selected to help students master reading skills from Kindergarten to 6th grade. As students read books, they must complete a computer-based mastery program specifically for that book. Computers keep track of each student's progress and every few weeks, students receive recognition, prizes, and rewards.

More than 100 years ago, Sitting Bull, a Lakota Sioux, said, "Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children." May the words of this great American be our vision statement for this year's service project. We hope that Empty Shelves will put over 1,000 books from the Accelerated Reader program into the Fall-Hamilton Library. May GA attendees leave Nashville knowing they have both shared our abundance and left a legacy of caring for the children whose lives can be enriched by books.

Article reprinted from the Thursday edition of Nashville Notes, the daily GA newspaper. Formatted for the web by Kasey Melski.