Sonya Abbye-Taylor, associate professor of Education, Chair of the Division of Education, and Kappa Delta Pi counselor at Mount Saint Mary College, cuts the ribbon for the Little Free Library at Bishop Dunn Memorial School in Newburgh, N.Y.
Thanks to the efforts of Mount Saint Mary College’s Sigma Tau Chapter 451 of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), the young students of Bishop Dunn Memorial School can now sharpen their reading skills with the Little Free Library.
Situated outside of Bishop Dunn, near the school’s sensory garden, the Little Free Library contains several dozen books that students can borrow whenever they would like. More books will be added in the coming weeks.
Students from Bishop Dunn and the Mount gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, October 28. Fr. Gregoire Fluet, vice president for Mission and Ministry at the Mount, blessed the new library.
“I need to tell you how proud I am of the all the KDP students who helped, because their work has made this happen,” noted KDP counselor Sonya Abbye-Taylor, associate professor of Education and Chair of the Division of Education at the college. “Their collective work has been absolutely incredible, and so are you [the students of Bishop Dunn].”
Bishop Dunn principal and Mount alumna Nancy Benfer echoed Taylor’s enthusiasm for the new library: “Dare to dream it when you’re an educator, and it can happen,” she said.
The Mount’s KDP is dedicated to service-learning in the local community. It promotes excellence in, and recognizes outstanding contributions to, the field of education. The society endeavors to maintain a high degree of professional fellowship among its members, quicken professional growth, and honor achievement in educational work.
Bishop Dunn, on the Mount campus, was founded in 1883. The school is committed to the academic, spiritual, emotional, social, and physical development of children, pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Mount Education students do fieldwork at the school, under the guidance of seasoned Bishop Dunn faculty.