by Kate Shunney
Local elementary school students decided late last month to use their power to make positive change in their own community, inspired by a library book brought to them by a volunteer reader.
Read Aloud WV volunteer and longtime former teacher Linda See has been reading to Widmyer Elementary students in kindergarten and first grade for three years.
She chooses the book she’ll read to students each week. Sometimes it’s an old favorite, and she has plenty from 50 years of teaching school in Florida. But See also keeps her eyes open for new books, stories that are timely or related to the season.
“If I can find a book where they can learn something, I do that,” she said.
The week of Valentine’s Day, she read “If Kids Ran the World” by Leo and Diane Dillon to six classes at Widmyer Elementary. See had seen the book at the Morgan County Public Library. 
“It looked like a great book for this age,” she said.
It was during reading in one of the classes that See and students started talking about what the kids would do to make things better in the world if they ran things.
“If kids ran the world, we would make it a kinder, better place,” the book says.
One of the students said she and her mom had put items in the public “Blessing Box” in downtown Berkeley Springs for anyone in need. The box holds non-perishable foods, toiletry items, baby care supplies, socks and other basics. In another classroom, a different student said her grandparents had been involved in building the Blessing Box, which stands along U.S. 522 near CNB Bank.
See issued a challenge to students in six classrooms – if they wanted to make the world better, then could bring one item from home that could be used to stock the Blessing Box for individuals in need. Students in Mrs. Waugh’s kindergarten class, plus first graders from Mrs. Fisher, Rolling, Mirfin, Buser and Vance’s classrooms participated.
Young people in the book, after all, said if they ran the world, “Kids who have extra food would bring it to people who need it.”
The following week, students and staff from the school offered up their donated items. Layla Windle and Heather Windle, of Life or Drugs, Tri-State Support group gathered the items. Their group restocks the Blessing Box often.
photo courtesy of Linda See
“We really got a variety of things,” See said. Donations included canned and dried foods, baby wipes, books, kids’ shoes and clothing, snacks, band-aids, toothpaste and more.
After a few classes, it was a “great big box of stuff”.
“They were still asking the week after about donating,” See said. “Kids really want to help.” 
If kids ran the world, “friendship kindness and generosity would be worth more than money,” according to the book See shared.
“If kids ran the world, we’d make it a wonderful place for everyone to live. Grownups, too.”
See reads to students each Thursday and Friday through Read Aloud WV, and said Morgan County could use more readers. Anyone interested in taking a brief training to be a volunteer reader for one class (or six), can contact the state organization at stateoffice@readaloudwestvirginia.org or call 304-345-5212 to get training or connect with the local chapter.
submitted photo
