TULSA, Okla. — 2 News Oklahoma champions our parent company's "If You Give A Child A Book" campaign."
The goal is to promote literacy by providing free books to help children learn to read.
Seeing the commercials prompted a Broken Arrow woman to contact us because she had some books to give.
We soon found her family's gift involves the mom they lost and the happiness found in the pages of the book she wrote.
"This book was written by our mom, Shirley Anne Burroughs. She had a vision that we all have sparking gems within us," said Corinne Johnson said while holding the bright blue copy of the children’s book, “Hi! I’m Happy!.”
Corinne Johnson and her sister, Bev Colson, want to share their mother's message.
“She was helpful and happy and glowing. She just had a beautiful light around her. Always wanted to help others," said Bev Colson, Burroughs’ daughter.
Shirley Anne Burroughs was a former teacher who wrote and published a book for children 12 years ago. She recorded the narration and put a CD inside the book cover so children and their parents could read along with Burroughs.
Then Shirley died last year, and the family couldn’t bear not sharing the lessons she taught her daughters and grandchildren.
"Knowing that joy and happiness is within. But now that she's gone?” Johnson added, "It's like these words, they mean more. They mean more!"
"My Dad gave me the honor of trying to find a placement for all of these books," Colson said. "And I thought, Channel 2. Just give it a try!"
When her email came in, 2 News gave her a call and promised we would help find a home for the 1,240 books that had been piled up in their father's dining room and even stored underneath his bed for the past seven years.
"In the dining room! So, whenever we had family dinners there's the books - and the rest were underneath Dad's bed. We didn't realize we had all of these."
So, we reached out to 2 News Oklahoma's literacy partner, Lisa Shotts, and she drove up in the Gaining Ground Bus.
Shotts is a former educator who founded the Gaining Ground literacy program. She spends countless hours getting books into the hands of children and reached more than 5,000 students every year.
So, we started loading up the boxes. There were enough to fill the back of the Gaining Ground bux.
"So emotional! It's so beautiful emotions though," Johnson said through her tears. "It's happiness."
The books their mother always intended to share.
"And now the fact that this is all going to be passed on to children - it's just a little miracle," she said.
The timing of the donation could not have been better. Shotts announced, "We have a Read to Lead with Channel 2 tomorrow at McCollough Elementary."
So, the very next day, "Hi, I'm Happy" books were chosen by children eager to learn to read.
Santiago Pinto, an elementary student who recently moved here from Venezuela, told 2 News, "They are very good books to start reading English. They are very good."
Those smiling faces offer proof that Shirley Ann Burroughs' dream finally came true. Colson and Johnson believe it was their mother's work from heaven. Fitting, since the final words of the book read, "I am happy! I am happy! I am happy at last."
Burroughs wrote three books, in all, as well as hundreds of poems. The family is now considering publishing the others, along with a book of her poems.
Here is the link to the YouTube page where you can hear Shirley Anne Burroughs narrate her book.
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