Submitted Photo Loretta Torain, organizer, directs children to take books at the Open Door #3 Church in Dunkirk.

An outpouring of support for the “See Me” book drive filled the Open Door 3 Church at 59 Lake Shore Drive West in the city of Dunkirk.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., the drive was conducted due to the cancellation of the annual luncheon. The goal of the effort was to show the area youth stories featuring characters who looked like them.

“We had people from all over the community respond,” Loretta Torain, organizer of the event, told the OBSERVER. “We had at least 200 books donated and a couple of thousand dollars in funds to purchase books with. We’ve had so much outpour we’re still getting things now. We gave them out on Martin Luther King Jr. Day during Black History Month and then we’re going to give them out on Juneteenth. We’ll have an area setup with a book drive there.”

Torain was astounded at the support that the drive received.

“We had former teachers, local teachers, professors from campus, business people and people in the community become involved,” she added.

There was one woman in the community she spoke of who hasn’t been out much because of COVID-19. She just sent cash in an envelope saying, “I can’t get out to buy the books. Can you buy them?”

“People thought it was a wonderful idea to do and the kids thought it was wonderful too because they saw all these books that they probably had never seen before and it just featured kids of all colors and creeds so that was just great,” Torain added. “Some of us wanted to keep a few because they were ones we hadn’t read either. I think it touched everybody.”

The abundance of books allowed children to leave the church in February with more than one book too. Originally, the plan was one book per child, but there were so many, youth were able to take as many as they wanted.

“The event went so well,” Torain said. “We thank the community for all they did for us and the children.”