Memories will be made this school year at Cedar Valley Elementary School. But this year, they will be diligently preserved instead of forgotten, thanks to Cedar Valley school counselor Brandi Carroll and a grant she was awarded.
During a school assembly Tuesday afternoon, Carroll put the first part of her grant project into motion. The project revolves around a book called "Make Me a Memory," which is about an 11-year-old girl whose father was stationed at Fort Hood and then deployed to Iraq.
"I read this book, Make Me a Memory,' and I wanted it. But I didn't just want it for me, I wanted it for every single kid in the school," Carroll told the audience of students. When they gasped, she exclaimed, "I know, that's about $4,000 worth of books!"
She explained to the group what a grant is, and how she was given one last April from the Killeen Independent School District Education Foundation so she could pursue her dream of putting a copy of "Make Me a Memory" in each Cedar Valley child's hands.
"How many times have you kids ever wanted something but didn't have the money for it? ... How many of you have ever begged your parents for money?" Carroll said. "Well, I asked my mom for $4,000 but she didn't have it. So I wrote something called a grant, which is kind of like begging, but you write it down."
With the $4,426.18 she was given by the foundation, Carroll acquired autographed copies of "Make Me a Memory" for each of the more than 600 students at Cedar Valley Elementary School. She also brought the book's author, Tamra Norton, to the school. Norton read the first chapter of her book during the assembly.
And it doesn't stop there. She and other school staff also will help the children make and keep track of their own memories, whether they be having a picture taken on a special occasion or making a voice recording of a special moment. All of this will be stored in a computer file and then put on a CD for each individual child to keep.
Also, for the last 15 minutes of school for the next 11 school days, students will drop what they're doing and read the book and watch a video recording.
The video recording will feature a different military father each day reading a chapter of the book. All the men are fathers of students at Cedar Valley, and Carroll said she believes all but one has been deployed since they were video taped for the reading.
One of the main reasons Carroll is doing this is because so many students have loved ones deployed with the military. But she said the book doesn't just reach out to those students.
"I read it, and said, Oh my gosh, this hits home with all of our kids.' It's perfect, and it's written so kids will understand it," she said.
Norton said that in all her writing career, which has included three books for teenagers, this grant project is "probably one of the biggest things that has happened to me."
She said the idea for "Make Me a Memory" stemmed from seeing news footage of all the soldiers deploying from Fort Hood, and saying good-bye to their families.
" I thought, There's a story to tell here," and then I thought it would be best to write it from a child's eyes," Norton said.
So the book features 11-year-old Allison, who goes by Allie, struggling through her father's deployment and also with moving away from Killeen to Edna, Idaho. During the time of her father's absence, she learns to make memories she can share with him later, just as children at Cedar Valley will do this school year.
According to Dawn Parnell, director of the KISD Education Foundation, it was this aspect of memory-making, and many others, which led to this project being picked for a grant.
"The grant committee felt that this grant was very innovative and creative and it was a way for students to connect with deployed family members as well as improve reading and writing skills," Parnell said. "It teaches them the importance of traditions, family and building a heritage."
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