Tequesta, FL - December 10, 2021

A dream team consisting of a local reading group, a retired FAU librarian and a generous private school have collaborated to build a library for special needs students at Riverbend Academy, an alternative Martin County school, which solely serves inpatient children and adolescents at Sandy Pines Psychiatric Hospital. 

Two years ago, a local book club adopted Sandy Pines as their annual holiday charity after learning that the children at Sandy Pines love to read, but needed books. This group of 12 women gathered over 600 books as well as a generous donation from Turtle River Montessori, a local school in Jupiter. Now, two years later, after Riverbend’s book supply was depleted by Covid, these women continue to support and expand their efforts within Riverbend Academy, this year by partnering with St. Mark’s Episcopal School in Palm Beach Gardens and a retired FAU librarian, Ethan Allen. This holiday, Riverbend Academy library will receive several thousand books and be upgraded to an automated system called “Tiny Cat,” where books can be tracked and cataloged, just like a real library. 

Gary Spark’s, Principal at Riverbend Academy (serving the highest need students in the Martin County School District), and Julie Jadeau-Granieri, the reading specialist there, say that the 4 to 18-year-old children at Sandy Pines Hospital who attend Riverbend are avid readers. Since they are not allowed to have cell phones or any electronic devices, including computers and iPads, books are their only connection to the outside world. Jadeau- Granieri says, “They can’t get enough of them.”

In gratitude, the children, many who have severe psychiatric illnesses, have suffered traumatic situations, have been removed from foster care, and/or are court mandated to the hospital, have made bookmarks and cards for all the donors with their special sayings like, “Reading is Hope” and “I am most thankful for books because they are my best friends and they take me to places and can’t travel to.”

Principal Sparks states, “The book club, St. Marks School, and a volunteer librarian reaching out to us and working to help Riverbend get our first functional library is extremely exciting to our staff, our children, our district, and myself. It is an endeavor that will last a lifetime and never be forgotten.” 

Deb Strainge, Principal at St. Mark’s, has engaged the school’s own librarian, Jennifer Noel, to collaborate setting up the Riverbend library, and her Middle School Service League Coordinator, Sally Lubeck, to lead students in conducting a book drive and inputting all the books into a database for community service hours. Strainge says, “we feel so very blessed to be part of the team to support Sandy Pines!”