Veronica Bane, a young adult author and high school teacher in Los Angeles, watched with horror as she saw the LA wildfires rip across her city and wondered how she could help students and teachers whose lives had been upended.
Her school stayed closed during the natural disaster, and she was checking the Watch Duty app, which issued alerts about impending wildfires, throughout each night, grabbing just a couple hours of sleep at a time, like so many in the area.
She knew that many LA charities had received immediate, generous donations to cover everyday necessities, such as food, clothing and water. But one thing that she hadn’t seen being collected was something dear to her heart—books.
Putting Out A Call For Books To Give Teachers Impacted By LA Wildfires
Bane readily acknowledges that books are not a necessity, per se. But she noted they can provide comfort and normalcy in a time of loss.
“Especially as this fire was closer to my school, I just thought I would be devastated to lose my classroom. All those memories, all those books that I’ve perfectly curated, so that if a kid comes to me and says, ‘I don’t care about reading,’ I can be like, ‘Well, what about this book?’ And then suddenly they do [like to read]
,” she said. “I just thought of every teacher that would have to rebuild. LA is literally full right now of necessities and donations. And so I said, ‘Collecting books would be what I could do.’”
Bane has been a member of the YA author community for a decade, first as a ghostwriter and more recently selling her first YA novel under her own name, publishing this summer. She had many contacts within the YA community, including authors who had donated books to her own school.
On January 11, Bane posted an appeal to LA teachers on Threads and Bluesky, offering to help them restock their classroom libraries after the fire. Comedian Patton Oswalt, who has more than 440,000 followers on Threads, reposted her plea along with the note, “Love this.” Bane’s mentions blew up. The last time she checked, the post had more than 100,000 views.
At first, Bane invited people to reach out to her via direct message. But soon, that became too much to keep up with. “My mentions are a mess,” she said. Bane created a Google Form to help match donors with teachers.
Nearly 400 Donations For Classrooms Impacted By LA Wildfires
Within a week, she already had 393 people and counting fill out the form. She gave a heads up to her post office, where she has a small P.O. box, to expect a big influx of donations. “They said, ‘We’ll work with you, we’ll be OK,’” she said.
It’s going to be a lot of traffic. According to Bane’s calculations, she will receive between 3,000 and 4,000 donations in the coming weeks if everyone who promised to send books follows through. She also received a “generous” donation from LA independent bookstore Chevalier’s Books.
Others have reached out with donations related to other art forms. “One of the teachers I was in touch with said their whole music department had burned down,” said Bane. “So I’ve been gathering instruments for them as well. I’m not a music girly, but I think we have enough for a full band so far.”
Bane, who also repeated her call for donations on X (formerly Twitter), has shared teachers’ wish lists on Amazon so that people can donate directly. She has received support from the YA community, with authors donating copies of their own novels as well as advanced reader copies sent out before books are published. She has been touched by the generosity she has seen. “I have had several people offer to pick up and help sort the books, too,” she said.
Bane noted that while she’s thrilled to be able to help other teachers in need, having something to do has also been a coping mechanism for herself and her husband, who was happy to open their home to donations. “I think that’s been the only bright spot, is being able to give back and do something,” she said.
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