By Nikki Moses
When Kim Curry read A Long Walk to Water to students at Eastern Greenbrier Middle School, she set off a chain of events that culminated in a highly successful drive for backpacks and school supplies for kids in Haiti.
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is a true story about Salva, a Sudanese lost boy, and a fictional girl, Nya. Nya cannot attend school because she must spend her days carrying water from a far away pond for her family. Author Park brings their lives together when Salva helps build a well in Nya’s village, thus enabling her to attend school.
Curry had witnessed the same water problems in Haiti, where she has traveled six times through Mountains to Mountains, a program of Trinity 
United Methodist Church in Ronceverte.
“That has been my experience in Haiti,” she said. “Some children can’t go to school because they have to carry water.”
Curry said she “took photographs of community wells, water jugs, people carrying water, on my trip in March with the purpose of sharing them with the students because I had read A Long Walk to Water to them.” Seeing this lack of access to clean water in Haiti (like in Sudan), along with class discussions, inspired Greenbrier students to help Haitian kids by conducting the backpack drive. Soon students at Greenbrier East High School became involved.
Curry said, “Brindi Anderson did the legwork for the drive. She provided all of the structure the kids needed. I just read the book. The kids jumped in and Brindi provided guidance.” Anderson is a teacher at Eastern Greenbrier Middle School.
The students needed money for shipping costs, so they held three-point basketball competitions, bake sales and more. They raised more than $130 and sent the supplies to Ecole-Shalome School in Croix des Bouquets outside of Port-au-Prince.
Curry, who is a retired teacher and school principal, and a Read Aloud coordinator and reader, hopes to further the relationship between students at the two schools through Skype, letter writing and emailing.