Girl Scouts collect books for storm-damaged school

WEST LIBERTY, Ky. - Four central Kentucky Girl Scouts have delivered 4,272 books they collected to a school in eastern Kentucky that was destroyed last spring by a tornado.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports librarian Frances Gulley received them with tears in her eyes, telling the girls that "saying thank you is not enough."

West Liberty Elementary School was one of many buildings destroyed in Morgan County on March 1 when a tornado ravaged the area. Since then, officials have repurposed a former industrial building to serve as a school.

Meanwhile, Girl Scouts in Woodford County were looking for a community service project when they say images of the destruction in West Liberty and decided to help.

Twelve-year-old Kaylee Collins, 12-year-old Bailey Bird and sisters, 10-year-old Katelyn Melcher and 13-year-old Emily Melcher, began collecting books in April.

"We thought about all the textbooks that were gone there," Collins said. "We had to do something."

The girls went to schools, churches and book fairs where they promoted their effort and placed collection boxes.

"When the girls started out, they were talking about how many they wanted to collect, and we kind of came up with we would try for 500 to 1,000, and then people kept saying, `We have more books for you to pick up,"' said Bailey's mom, Tonya Bird.

The Girl Scouts presented the girls with a Silver Award -- the organization's second-highest honor -- for their project.