Kiwanis Club holds book distribution

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

McKeesport Kiwanis Club members did their part Thursday to make sure children from the city have books to read this summer.

The Kiwanians teamed up with state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, and his staff to hand out hundreds of books at Christy Park United Methodist Church, where his family attends. It took place during the church’s Pittsburgh Dream Center mobile food bank distribution.

Club President John Bertoty said the club used money from the Debra A. Bertoty Memorial Fund, named for his late daughter, to purchase 1,543 pounds of books to distribute to families. 

“It was a whole pallet of beautiful books,” Bertoty said. “There are books for kids at the elementary, middle school and high school level.”

“Kiwanis is all about kids,” said Bertoty, who is now retired but was McKeesport Area High School’s academic principal for many years.  “Our mission is to serve the children of the world one child and one community at a time.

“A lot of us Kiwanians here are former educators. We realize that books are just so important and right now, they’re just not getting into the hands of the kids.”

John and his wife Sandra, also a Kiwanian, said Debra, who died last year, was a special education teacher in the McKeesport Area School District, who loved books.

“When (Debra) died, I’ll bet I left $5,000 worth of books to the kids in her classroom,” Sandra said. “She just loved books. We all do. We used to go to the book store together all the time.”

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