Strong women, I have found, possess magical powers. I just was lucky enough to witness three of them do the impossible. They need to be in a Hall Of Fame.

Don’t let anyone tell you that there are not people who are good and want to do good.

I’m overwhelmed by the coming together of three extraordinary women to get $4,000 worth of books – a whole new library for a school library – into Bishop Gibbons High School at no cost to the school or its students.

Bishop Gibbons is a poor school with a poor student body, mostly comprised of refugee and inner-city children. They care very much about their students.

We don’t have a Hall Of Fame in the Army Of Good, but when we do, here are three names that will get a trophy: Alys Culhane, Sue Silverstein, and Trish White.

They inspire me and motivate me. We can do anything. They just did the impossible.

Culhane, the charismatic and unstoppable founder of Bright Lights Books in Palmer, Alaska, is right now gathering books from all over the state so that the Bishop Gibbons high school in Schenectady, N.Y., an oasis for children in need, can update their school library with hundreds of books that reflect the lives of the young and their culture and interests.

The library’s books were old, and the students weren’t reading them. Trish White meant to change that. There was just no money to do it.

Every new book she wanted was now on the way from Alaska, of all places.

(Trish)

“This is an incredible thing,” said White, the hard-working and dedicated head of the English Department (she spent four hours Monday afternoon with a student working on her reading skills in the middle of the summer.), “nothing like this has ever happened to us before.”

I got a message from Trish today; it’s hard to send messages to the Army Of Good; we don’t really know where they are (I do know they are in every state in the Union, I know that from the donations they send for small acts of great kindness.)

“Thank you, everyone,” she wrote to Alys and me, “I am simply floored by the outpouring of good that is happening. A gift of books helps develop the students who are reading them and future generations. This is an incredibly appreciated gift.”

Alys Culhane is someone who loves to do things everyone tells her are impossible (I can relate to that). She started her amazingly bold and brilliant book program – the Bright Lights Books – a plan for salvaging books from garbage dumps over the angry protests of re-cycling officials.

Alys and her volunteer corps discovered all sorts of sources for used but undamaged books,  cleaned the books, and distributed them to poor children and schools without money to buy them. So many books are discarded. So many are needed and could be put to great use.

Alys’s idea has taken off; she just got a grant to expand her program. She has a lot of ambitions for it.

Bright Lights has mushroomed from the tiny Alaskan town of Palmer to schools and people all over that large state.

Bright Lights is a non-profit with volunteers collecting books from homes, libraries, schools, and garbage dumps that have been discarded or replaced.

My blog was going to host an Amazon Wish List to try to replace the books in the Bishop  Gibbons library (no one can even remember when new books were purchased there.) This might take a long time, I thought.

Alys, who had been sending me box after box of Amish books for the Miller and other Amish families here (I had to ask her to stoop, they were filling up our dining room), messaged me from Alaska, saying she would love to hook up with the Army Of Good and get Trish the books she wants.

She asked why we should spend money to buy new ones when she could get them all for free. I said I was in. I could hardly believe this was possible.

Sue Silverstein, a wonderful teacher and friend from Bishop Maginn – we did so much good work together on behalf of refugees and their families  – had introduced me to Trish White, the head of the Bishop Gibbons English Department, and is by all accounts one of the most dedicated teachers anywhere, met with me to talk about the wish list.

Sue is like a sister to me, and she knows me well. She knew Trish, and we would connect and do some good. Sue has been a teacher for 24 years, and when the Albany Diocese closed Bishop Maginn,  Principal Kiante Jones leaped at the chance to get her to Bishop Gibbons.

Bishop Gibbons is bigger than Bishop Maginn was, but the two schools have a lot in common – both are magnets for refugee and inner-city children eager to get to college.

Talking to Trish, I realized that she wanted to build a whole new library in her quiet and understated way. The books there were purchased decades ago; nobody can even remember when.

Two very ambitious women – Alys and Trish – had found one another. A third, an experience do-gooder, was working behind the scenes.

 

(Sue Silverstein)

Alys got to me before the list went up (just), and I asked Tricia for a list to send to Alys up in Alaska.

In my mind, I thought Tricia might ask for 30 or 40 books, and I thought Alys might be able to handle that (I should never underestimate people like that).

Tricia shocked me by sending a long list of contemporary books for middle and high school students. She wasn’t kidding about revamping the library; hundreds of books were on the list, and I freaked out, thinking Alys would never be able to fill an order like that.

Alys would look at the list, I fantasized, and tell me to get lost. I told Sue I was worried, and she said, “don’t be; it will happen.” Sue has a perfect track record with me. I believe her.

I warned Sue and Tricia that this might be over the heads of Bright Lights, a small, local non-profit. I was worried that I didn’t hear from Alys for two days and then got a message saying she was packing up the first three boxes of books on Tricia’s list and the others would be coming shortly.

She hadn’t blinked. Could you send me the list, she had said? I’ll get the books. Alys is a faithful blog reader and has been following the Army Of a Good idea for a long time. She got it right away.

Sue stepped in to oversee things, calm me down, and explain the Army of Good and me to a shell-shocked English Department head  (no one has ever given me or the school things before, she kept saying).

Sue told her what I was like and how to deal with me. “I understand you are someone who likes to get things done,” Trish told me. Yes, I said, I can be hard to take sometimes.

Please don’t pay too much attention to Jon; Sue told Trish. He always thinks these projects might fail. But these are incredibly good people, she explained. They always come through.

Boxes were arriving all week to the stunned staff at Bishop Gibbons – art supplies from the Army of Good, fabric from Maria’s blog readers, and cartons and cartons of books from Alaska.

There are books all over the hallways at Bishop Gibbons. The staff there is just dumbfounded.

I dreamt of someday getting Alys, Trish, and Sue together. They would move mountains for these children. Nothing could stop them. “Do you know these people?” a school secretary asked Sue. “No,” she said, “they are just people who want to do good.”

I hardly know any of them either.

I don’t know the wonderful Alsys except for her honest and outspoken e-mails. I’d love to meet her.

She is determined to get the Bright Lights idea moving throughout the country. This is an excellent start for her. She will do it too.

Sue and Trish, and Alys all remind me of one another. They are devoted to helping and teaching both needy and vulnerable children, just as Jesus Christ implored his followers to do. They’ve taken the best of the Christian idea and applied it to the young.

I don’t know Alys personally, but from her work and messages, I see a person of great courage, drive, and a huge heart. She means to do good, and I wouldn’t want to get in her way.

I am married to a woman like that.

Alys’s dedicated volunteers have fanned out to find the books, sort them, and ensure they are clean and in great shape. Bright Lights will ship them at their expense. This won’t cost the Army Of Good or the school a nickel.

That is a remarkable gift.

I see this wonderful present as a circle that connects the power and great hearts of three extraordinary women – Alys, Sue, and Tricia. It took all three of them working together for this to happen. It would never have happened without all three.

The books will arrive regularly now, and I’ll get to the school for some photos.

Trish is planning a new reading program that connects these books more closely with the lives and passions of her students. She is determined for the students to learn to love reading. She told me they would all need to read, no matter what they do.

Alys has made it possible to build a new and relevant library.

It’s hard even to imagine how much good this will do in the hand of people like Principal Kiante Jones, Trish, Sue, and the other teachers I am eager to meet. I met with Jones; he is the real deal. He is welcoming and supportive of our work.

For several years, I’ve watched Sue take troubled, impoverished, traumatized, and embattled children and give them love, hope, and guidance as they pursue the American dream.

I saw her do the impossible over and over again. I think I’ll see it again; what a joy and gift. I couldn’t be in a better place.

This school has heart and feelings. There is warmth and caring all over the building. I’m fortunate to know these women and stand in shock and awe at their work.

No one can tell me that people are not good.