A few weeks ago, I got a letter from a prison inmate in federal prison in the state of South Carolina. You will never believe what he wanted. This man is originally from the state of Arkansas and spent some time in a rehab facility here in our community known as The Renewal Ranch. This facility is for recovering addicts and this man has been involved in drugs. While I don’t know the details, this is why he was in a federal prison. 

Apparently while he was here in Arkansas, this man learned that I am the founder of the Conway Bookcase Project. He has two sons who are in elementary school here in Conway and he wanted me to provide them with a bookcase and some books. Apparently, he did not know the guidelines for our project and that we only provide books and personalized bookcases to pre-school children who are involved in the Head Start program, which as you may know is a federal program for low-income people.  I am pleased to say that our bookcase project is now 20 years old, and since we give 50 bookcases each year, that is 1,000 bookcases and books that we have provided for our Head Start Preschool children. 

To be sure, his need and request did not meet our guidelines, but I knew this was a very serious request and I wanted to honor his request if possible. The first person I called was my friend Mickey Cox, the craftsman who got a crew of men from his church together and built the bookcases for the first 13 years. Mickey said, “Let me check around and see if I can find a bookcase,” and he went to work. A couple of weeks later I called him back and he told me that Bill Clements had a bookcase we could have. Bill Clements has a shop where they built the bookcases, and he just happened to be the chairman of our local school board. 

For all the years our bookcase has been in existence, the Conway Trophy Shop has provided nameplates free of charge. I contacted Mr. Wilcox, owner of this shop, and he said they would be happy to provide a name plate. A short time later Mickey brought the bookcase to our home and installed the name plate. Now, all we needed was some books, and this need was supplied by my friend John McGraw, director of the Faulkner County Library System. This past week, the boys’ mother came to the library to pick up the books and the bookcase. Need met. 

The purpose of this column is something we should all do more often and that is to CARE ENOUGH to help other people who have a need. Our nation will be much better when we do. This morning, I called the boys’ mother to see if they were enjoying the bookcase and books. She said they sure were. It was at this point that I was able to tell her to let her boys know that there were people in America who cared about them and for them to care about others as well, and to make us proud.

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(Jim Davidson is an author, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. Since its inception in the Log Cabin Democrat in 1995, Jim’s column has been self-syndicated in over 375 newspapers in 35 states. (For a personalized copy of “Keep Your Fork” send $25 (includes P&H & TAX) to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Dr. Conway, AR 72034)