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Left to right: Bob Robinson, Beka Lindeman and Melissa Eve.
Diagon
Valley kickoff benefits Empowering Youth
GREENVILLE – “I don’t have anything to read… those books are for little
kids!” The student was right. A major shortage in the Empowering Darke
County Youth After School Program was having reading materials for
Middle School students.
Diagon Valley came to the rescue. Beka Lindeman, Assistant Professor of
English, Edison State Community College, Darke County Campus, set up a
table in the Edison State lobby, then pulled Melissa Eve, Edison State
Resource Specialist, and Bob Robinson, Edison State Adjunct Instructor,
momentarily from their duties to make a presentation… a week’s worth of
snacks and drinks, and enough books to challenge ALL 5-8 Middle School
students for the remainder of the year. Eve and Robinson are the
Empowering Assistant Program Coordinator and Program Coordinator,
respectively.
According to Lindeman, Diagon Valley is the Miami Valley chapter of the
Harry Potter Alliance (https://diagonvalley.wordpress.com/). The Harry
Potter Alliance is an international non-profit organization that uses
the power of storytelling to “turn fans into heroes.” The HPA’s goal is
to make activism more accessible by using popular stories and fandoms
to engage people in activism involving equality, human rights, and
literacy. The HPA page is: https://www.thehpalliance.org/
“Our chapter, Diagon Valley,” she said, “is dedicated to making our
local community more magical by focusing on magical acts of kindness
and literacy. Some of our recent projects have included the Free Dobby
Sock Drive for area warming shelters, Wizard Rock the Vote voter
registration drive, Crafts for a Cause where we made fleece blankets
for SAFY (Safe Alternatives For Youth: http://www.safy.org/ohio/) and
arm pillows for the local dialysis center, and hosting a yarn circle
where we made red scarves for Foster Care 2 Success’s Red Scarf Project
(they send care packages to foster youth who have aged out of the
system and are now in college:
http://www.fc2success.org/programs/student-care-packages/).
“The Harry Potter Alliance’s biggest project every year is Accio
Books,” she continued, “and it is our chapter’s biggest project as
well. Last year we distributed over 1,000 books in the community. We
set up a “book shop” during teacher work days in Sidney for teachers to
pick books for their classrooms and passed out over 500 books to
trick-or-treaters at Piqua’s downtown Trick-or-Treat (see photo below),
among other smaller distributions.
She added that this year’s Accio Books campaign is just starting. The
organization is accepting donations of any books through the end of
April. There are collection boxes at Turntable Café in Piqua and at the
SAFY office in Sidney, but they can also be dropped at Lindeman’s
office in the Edison State, Darke County Campus.
“We hope to distribute well over 1000 books again this year—and the
tutoring program was our kickoff!” Lindeman said.
“Beka’s timing couldn’t have been better,” Robinson said. “We had just
started working with junior high students, and we’ve had over a dozen
intermediate students come into our program since the beginning of the
fall term After School Program at Greenville Elementary and Middle
School.
“It was a shock!” he added, grinning. “We are extremely grateful to
Beka and the Diagon Valley chapter. This was a wonderful donation.”
Our Mission: Empowering Darke County Youth is a United Way Partner
providing After School and Summer Tutoring programs to assist students
in the areas of language arts and math with the goal of Strong Students
for a Strong Community.
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