[StBernard] Laura Bush visits New Orleans, announces more library grants

[Westley Annis]

First Lady Laura Bush kicked off her visit to New Orleans at a breakfast
Thursday morning calling for support for a program that would help her
foundation continue rebuilding devastated libraries along the Gulf Coast.
Zurich Financial, the sponsor of this week's professional golf tournament on
the West Bank, will donate to the Birdies for Books program $100 for every
birdie made at the event. Bush's foundation, the Laura Bush Foundation for
America's Libraries, will benefit from the Zurich program. 
"This is actually one time when we want sub-par performances," Bush said at
a breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown New Orleans as the golf
tournament began at the TPC on the West Bank. 

Since 2005, Bush's foundation has awarded $2.5 million in grants to help
rebuild school libraries in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas. 
"Rebuilt libraries will bring children back to the their schools," Bush
said. "And rebuilt schools will bring families back to a revitalized Gulf
Coast." 
After the breakfast, Bush visited the Holy Cross School in the Lower Ninth
Ward. She announced the school will receive a $50,000 grant to help rebuild
its libraries, one of 14 grants totalling $502,000 announced today for
schools in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Holy Cross' library had 50,000 volumes before Katrina struck, but presently
has only 500.

"This money is essential to the school in rebuilding its libraries," said
Holy Cross teacher Mark Lasserre, who teaches computers, robotics and
journalism. "We're starting essentially from ground zero." 

Other New Orleans area schools receiving grants: Edna Karr High School,
Sophie B. Wright Charter Middle School in Uptown New Orleans, ***J.F.
Gauthier Elementary School in St. Bernard***, Alice M. Harte Charter School
in Algiers and Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy in
Jefferson.