| Nursing professor aids Katrina
relief by exchanging ‘Beads for Books’
Lynda Nauright, RN, EdD, professor at Emory University
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, received several
knocks on her office door prior to Fat Tuesday. Her Mardi
Gras beads were a hot-ticket item, and Nauright gladly handed
them over in exchange for one thing—books.
Last year, Nauright launched the “Beads for Books”
drive to replace some of Dillard University’s textbooks
destroyed by Hurricane Katrina’s waist-deep floodwaters.
Dillard is located in the heart of New Orleans, where damage
was most severe.
“I wanted to do something personal, not just write
a check,” Nauright says.
Nauright solicited Emory nursing school faculty and students
to donate used textbooks for Dillard’s nursing school.
Donors brought books and Nauright gave them beads. A New
Orleans businesswoman donated the authentic Mardi Gras beads.
In just a few months, Nauright collected enough textbooks
to fill a dozen boxes. She made her first road trip to New
Orleans in October to deliver the books.
“The Dillard faculty was so appreciative of the donations,”
Nauright says. “One of the faculty members was so
overcome. She told me, ‘We’re so glad you're
doing this, because we thought everyone had forgotten.’”
Since Nauright’s visit to the Big Easy in October,
she’s added 22 boxes of textbooks to the collection.
She received a range of nursing specialty books—surgical
nursing, pharmacology, pediatric nursing, psychology and
public health nursing—and plans to make a second trip
to drop them off in a few weeks.
“I didn’t think many people would give books,
but the generosity has been overwhelming,” Nauright
says. “And you can gauge the tremendous level of support
by all of the beads on display at the nursing school.”
RNL
—Ashante Dobbs, Emory
University
Photo: Bryan Meltz/Emory University Photography
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