In a move that gives a whole new meaning to the term “book ‘em,” some FBI agents showed up at a Southeast D.C. elementary school Tuesday afternoon with box after box of books — a refreshing change of pace for agents who are used to lugging boxes of evidence away from scenes.
The Junior Special Agent program started earlier this school year when the FBI’s Washington Field Office came to J.C. Nalle Elementary School in the Marshall Heights area near the Maryland border. Agents from the field office go there and demonstrate some of the skills that are necessary to become an FBI agent.
But on the very first day of school, they were just there to greet students and parents. That’s how this book drive came about.
“One of our employees was talking with one of the parents who made a comment about the little free libraries that are around the school grounds here, and how they could use some additional books,” said Slawomir Janik, the acting special agent in charge of the field office.
For the last two months, agents and support staff from around the D.C. region started buying books or going through their own bookshelves to find books that were still in excellent condition. They delivered about 2,000 of those books on Tuesday.
Nicole Mines, a Washington Field Office community outreach specialist, is the one credited with getting the drive started inside both the main office building downtown, as well as another location in Manassas, Virginia. Boxes were set up next to elevators on each floor of their building, and the books started piling up.
“I was absolutely excited. I was excited,” Mines said. “And then we got to a point where we wanted to begin a count, and then that pushed the excitement a little bit further.”
She said seeing some of the books there took her back to her own childhood and made her feel nostalgic. But even more excited were the Junior Special Agents at J.C. Nalle who got to pick out some new books.
“I just want to say thank you, because I love books. I can’t go a day without a book at all,” said Stephen Wright, a fifth grade student at the school.
“If you learn how to read, you could probably go to different places,” he added. “You could be a lawyer, or something like that.”
His teacher, Cheryl Alexander, described the book drive as “amazing.”
“Just to watch and know that there are people all over the area that want to support the students in their growth and reading, makes my job much more fulfilling,” she said. “I know it takes a village and I’m not by myself.”
It helps that every child in the school can take more than one book home to read. Every student, she said, should either read, or be read to, for about 20 minutes every night. But, she also acknowledged not every student at the school is so fortunate to have enough reading material to do that.
“It’s the perfect day for all of us, for the parents too, because it supports them as well,” Alexander said. “When they can’t afford to get the books, now they’ve got some books for their kids to read.”
Wright was enthusiastic, but he also admitted he was surprised to hear just how many books were getting delivered: “At first, when they said 2,000 books I got really confused, because I didn’t know people could afford 2,000 books.”
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