The James Logan Courier

By Artemio Flores, Courier Staff Writer

An anonymous donor has donated $60,000 to James Logan High School to restore library services to the school's students and staff.

Due to recent budget cuts administrators decided to close the library for the year, or so it seemed.

Last Friday, Logan Principal Amy McNamara received a call from a man that who read about the library being closed down in a local newspaper. The man, who wishes to stay anonymous, said he wanted to donate some money to the school.


When she got the call, McNamara, who said she often receives calls from would-be donors, said she thought “What does he want to donate? A couple bucks?”

She was surprised when the donor asked McNamara how much it would take to pay the librarians’ salary and re-open the library. She told to him it would take about $60,0000.

He said he would pay that amount.

McNamara told The Courier that she kept from telling anyone about the offer because she was a little doubtful if he seriously was going to give $60,000 to the school.

On Thursday, McNamara checked her mail and found in it a check for $60,000.

She said her first reaction was dancing and jumping up and down in her office.

The man, who wants no recognition, told her he would like to be anonymous because his gift is not about him giving the library money; he said he just wants the opportunity to give back to students because it’s the right thing to do.

When asked what she thought of the anonymous donor, senior class president Kimbo Quinto said, “I respect him, but I really want to know his name so Logan can give back to him and thank him for what he did for us.”

Logan's student representative to the New Haven Board of Directors, Cindy Nguyen, said she was very surprised that someone donated so much money just for us. “It shows that there really is still people that really care about this school, and don’t care about getting credit. They just care about getting the library up and running for us,” Nguyen sid.

On Thursday after school McNamara and House Principal Francis Rojas deposited the check at the district office.

Logan's school librarian, Carla Colburn, who was assigned to teach English to freshman and seniors after the library was closed and campaigned vigorously to keep it open, will return to being a full time librarian because of the donation.

“It will be enough to fund Ms. Colburn to do library services for the rest of the year,'" said McNamara, "and we will get a new teacher for her classes.”

Colburn and McNamara were so joyful after receiving the donation that they started to cry for joy.

“I just am so grateful, its restored my faith in people, just that somebody who has the resources to do something like that, someone who sees a good cause and does something like that,” McNamara said. "it restored my faith in humanity, and reminds me that people do care about schools and kids having access to stuff.”

McNamara said she wants to do a video to thank the man who donated the money, and is working on getting that started.