LeAnn Clark, one of the unsung heroes behind Ethiopia Reads, and her husband, Stan Clark, live in Hesston, Kansas. For more than 15 years, the couple collected books for Ethiopia Reads. This month, with the help of Ethiopian Airline and the Boeing factory in South Carolina, 34 pallets containing over 50,000 books arrived in Addis Ababa and are headed to libraries in schools across Ethiopia.
LeAnn was the President of the Kansas Reading Association when she first met Jane Kurtz, Co-Founder of Ethiopia Reads. Thus began LeAnn’s mission of collecting, storing, sorting, packing, labeling, and shipping books for Ethiopian children. The Clarks have driven across the midwest to collect children’s books for Ethiopia Reads. Books have arrived from as far away as Florida, New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin. They recruited hundreds of volunteers to help with this shipment and three other ones.
LeAnn made her first trip to Ethiopia in 2005 and returned in 2010 as a part of a group supported by the U.S. Fulbright-Hays Grant. She encouraged and brought along several Kansas-based educators who eventually formed our steadfast Book Centered Learning (BCL) Committee. To this day, LeAnn continues to devote her time to literacy in Ethiopia and, next month, she will participate in Ethiopia Reads’ Second Children’s Reading Summit in Addis Ababa, along with her colleagues on the BCL team.
Thank you, LeAnn and Stan for your incredible energy and heart for reading and children. We are grateful to the Clarks and all the volunteers and helpers who made this incredible gift of books happen!
