Marshall Elementary recently received a unique grant from “Toys for Tots” after losing many of their library books when the building flooded over Christmas break.

“We were all out over Christmas Break and didn’t even realize that one of our pipes had frozen and broken causing a major flood throughout the school,” Principal Cindy Frame said. “Thank goodness one of our maintenance guys happened to drive by the building and saw the water pouring out of the doors. When we got into the building the water was over our shoes and had ruined many of our library books.”

Luckily kindergarten teacher Mandi Pitts, who is always looking for grants for the school, happened to find one that the school could apply for.

That’s when librarian Veronica Martin, who had never written a grant, started to work on writing one to see if they could possibly get help to restock their book supply.

“I didn’t even see all the books that went into the trash,” Martin said. “It was devastating to say the least. But when we got the call that we were getting the grant, we were thrilled.”

Boxes and boxes came in with 2,500 books for Marshall Elementary. Martin was overwhelmed by the amount of books given, with even some books signed by the authors. Over 2,000 books were to go into their library program and just under 500 books were given to the students directly to take home to keep.

Toys for Tots representative, Gunnery Sergeant Bud Jones, came to congratulate Martin on the grant and to help hand out books to the students. He stated this was an unusual grant that they honored because of the flooding situation and the low income level of the county.

“We generally help local McIntosh County kids through Toys for Tots at Christmas time, but when we saw the greater need here, we rose to meet it,” Jones said.

“I’m just so happy to be able to help our students and our school in every way possible,” Martin said. “We also received 10 humidifiers from the local Dollar General to help dry out our library and we are grateful for all the help.”