Text 3174, 80 rader
Skriven 2006-08-29 23:31:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0608291) for Tue, 2006 Aug 29
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President and Mrs. Bush Discuss Gulf Coast School Library Recovery
Initiative
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 29, 2006

President and Mrs. Bush Discuss Gulf Coast School Library Recovery
Initiative
Warren Easton Senior High School
New Orleans, Louisiana


˙˙˙˙˙ Fact Sheet: Keeping the Promise of Jackson Square: A More Hopeful
Louisiana ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Hurricane Katrina

12:04 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Laura and I want to thank the educators and students who
have taken time to come over and help us make the point that renewal
requires good education, and that there are a lot of good folks up and down
the Gulf Coast who understand that, and that part of good education means
having good books and strong libraries.

And so I'm going to turn it over to the person who's the strong, good
library person in our family.

MRS. BUSH: Well, I'm so excited today to get to see each one of you. I had
a foundation already for school libraries, and we were just getting ready
to disband the fundraising arm of that, the advisory committee, last year,
last October. And when we met for our last meeting, they said, let's keep
going, let's raise money now specifically for the Gulf Coast and try to
raise enough money so that if every school comes up and is functional again
and is staffed, that they can apply for a grant for -- to stock their
library.

And it's been a thrill to be associated with school people. I know how
school people work. Your first responders, just like firemen and policemen,
you know you've got to get your schools up and going immediately. And I
want to thank you for your determination and your very hard work, because I
know that many of the people on every school staff who rebuilt their
schools, are also having to rebuild their own lives. They lost their own
houses, or they are living in FEMA trailers. And so they're doing double
work, and I want to thank you very, very much for that.

This is the second round of grants that we're announcing today. We gave 10
schools, seven in Louisiana and three in Mississippi, earlier this summer.
And this is our second round of grants to 10 more schools, once again seven
in Louisiana and three in Mississippi.

These grants, for the press, might want to know, that these are for
materials to restock a school library. They come in the form of a check
because we know that school librarians want to build their library the way
that it will support their curriculum and be most appropriate and perfect
for their school children. So this is not -- this is not a book
distribution, this is a check to these schools so they can do what all
professional librarians want to do, and that is restock their libraries
with the best books possible, including the course books that are
especially bound for libraries so they can get a lot of use.

So I'm so excited to be here with all of you. I especially want to thank
four foundations which have been very, very generous with the second round
of grants: the AT_

And I also want to thank Marshall Payne out of Dallas who's the Chairman of
the Gulf Coast Recovery Initiative. He's back here. And Pam Willeford,
who's our Director.

So Pam, I believe we'll take it over to you next.

END 12:08 P.M. CDT

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