The Amherst women's basketball team collected over 200 books and raised funds for hurricane relief.

Jeffs Provide Aid to Hurricane Relief with "Books Make You a Winner" Challenge

December 2 , 2005

AMHERST, MA - In conjunction with its season-opening tournament, the Amherst College women's basketball team collected over 200 books and raised funds with its "Books Make You a Winner" competition to provide aid to schools devastated by hurricanes in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The team worked with the Amherst-based public charity Reader-to-Reader, which plans to send over 60,000 books to schools in need, including D'Iberville Middle School in Mississippi - the school that Amherst College has adopted. Through Reader-to-Reader, the donated books will be distributed among these schools, with a large portion going specifically to D'Iberville.

The Amherst women's basketball team publicized the event on campus with students, faculty and staff, as well as encouraging their families and non-Amherst fans to bring books. The visiting teams, Westfield, Norwich and WNEC, all participated with team and personal book donations, in addition to relaying the information to their fans, who also made generous contributions.

"Community service has always been important on our team and we coined the phrase 'Books Make You a Winner' in order to promote reading and literacy to middle school aged children not only on an academic level but athletic as well," said senior co-captain Krissy Morin. "It was a great way to bring together the members of the other basketball teams, our families and the Amherst community to contribute to this cause."

"We received great support from the Amherst College community, as well as the visiting schools and their fans," added Amherst College women's basketball assistant coach Kathryn Honderd '05. "It was wonderful that amidst the intense competition of games, the coaches, players and fans of all the teams were working together to help others and make this outreach effort a success."

Amherst returns to action tonight at 8 p.m., facing non-conference foe Western New England College in the opening day of the Pioneer Valley Classic, to be hosted by Westfield State College.