[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[August 29, 2006]
[Pages 1564-1565]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion on the Gulf Coast School Library Recovery 
Initiative in New Orleans, Louisiana
August 29, 2006

    The President. Laura and I want to thank the 
educators and students who have taken time to come over and help us make 
the point that renewal requires good education, and that there are a lot 
of good folks up and down the gulf coast who understand that, and that 
part of good education means having good books and strong libraries.
    And so I'm going to turn it over to the person who's the strong, good library person in our family.
    The First Lady. Well, I'm so excited today to 
get to see each one of you. I had a foundation already for school 
libraries, and we were just getting ready to disband the fundraising arm 
of that, the advisory committee, last year, last October. And

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when we met for our last meeting, they said, ``Let's keep going, and 
let's raise money now specifically for the gulf coast and try to raise 
enough money so that if every school comes up and is functional again 
and is staffed, that they can apply for a grant for--to stock their 
library.''
    And it's been a thrill to be associated with school people. I know 
how school people work. You're first-responders, just like firemen and 
policemen. You know you've got to get your schools up and going 
immediately. And I want to thank you for your determination and for your 
very hard work, because I know that many of the people on every school 
staff who rebuilt their schools are also having to rebuild their own 
lives. They lost their own houses, or they are living in FEMA trailers. 
And so they're doing double work, and I want to thank you very, very 
much for that.
    This is the second round of grants that we're announcing today; we 
gave 10 schools, 7 in Louisiana and 3 in Mississippi, earlier this 
summer. And this is our second round of grants to 10 more schools, once 
again 7 in Louisiana and 3 in Mississippi.
    These grants, for the press, might want to know that these are for 
materials to restock a school library. They come in the form of a check 
because we know that school librarians want to build their library the 
way that it will support their curriculum and be most appropriate and 
perfect for their schoolchildren. So this is not--this is not a book 
distribution; this is a check to these schools so they can do what all 
professional librarians want to do, and that is restock their libraries 
with the best books possible, including, of course, books that are 
especially bound for libraries so they can get a lot of use.
    So I'm so excited to be here with all of you. I especially want to 
thank four foundations which have been very, very generous for the 
second round of grants. The AT&T Foundation, Conoco/Philips, Target, and 
Enterprise Corporation have been very generous so that we can continue 
to give grants across the gulf coast. And I want to thank them, their 
representatives of their corporations here. Thank you all very much for 
that.
    And I also want to thank Marshall Payne out of Dallas, who's the 
chairman of the Gulf Coast Recovery Initiative. He's back here--and Pam 
Willeford, who's our director.
    So, Pam, I believe we'll take it over to you next.

[At this point, the public portion of the event concluded; the 
discussion continued, however, and no transcript was provided.]

Note: The President spoke at 11:04 a.m. at Warren Easton Senior High 
School. The First Lady referred to Marshall B. Payne, chairman, Gulf 
Coast School Library Recovery Initiative; and Pamela P. Willeford, 
chair, advisory committee, Laura Bush Foundation for America's 
Libraries.