“Be the Change: Caring that Matters” is the theme for Hesston College’s fall 2015 First-year Experience (FYE) course, and it’s reaching beyond the campus property lines through the college’s 2015 community read selection Etched in Sand (2013, William Morrow Paperbacks) by Regina Calcaterra.

Every first-year Hesston College student bought the book for FYE, and faculty and staff received it and were encouraged to read it during the summer. A partnership between Hesston College and the Hesston Public Library also made it available to community members, along with a standing invitation for the wider community to participate in all of the college’s community read events throughout the semester. A Newton Public Library book club and a Moundridge High School English class have also gotten on board with the partnership.

“Hesston College is continually reaching out to the Hesston community in order to develop a good relationship—both communities need and benefit from relationship with one another,” said Margaret Wiebe, director of the college’s Mary Miller Library.

Both Wiebe and Libby Albers, director of the Hesston Public Library, applied for and were awarded $500 each from the South Central Kansas Library System New Program/Project Development Grant. With the combined awards, they purchased 125 copies of Etched in Sand for free distribution to the community, which as of Sept. 1, have all been claimed by community members interested in exploring the themes of the foster care system and the impact of caring, among others, along with the college community.

The New York Times bestseller, Etched in Sand, is the author’s memoir, tracing her and her four siblings’ childhood experiences with abandonment, physical abuse and a fear of the foster system that was put in place to protect them. The story is emotionally charged with accounts of homelessness, violence and constant neglect. The siblings learn to fend for themselves and lie about their mother’s whereabouts to avoid attention from authorities.

Small acts of caring laced in among the children’s pain makes their fearful existence survivable and acts as a stepping stone for each of them to boost his or her way out of the precarious cycle to become well-adjusted and successful adults.

Several child advocacy professionals as well as faculty members are scheduled to speak in FYE classes and at special events throughout the fall semester, all of which the community is invited to attend.

A highlight to the lineup is an on-campus presentation from Calcaterra who will discuss her book and advocacy work with foster care at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5, in the Hesston Mennonite Church Sanctuary on the Hesston College campus. Calcaterra will also do a follow-up question and answer session at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Hesston Public Library.

Other community read presentations include:
• Diana Schunn, executive director of Child Advocacy Center of Sedgwick County, 12:30 to 1:20 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 15, Hesston Mennonite Church
• Panel presentation with Sammie Simmons, Kansas Department for Children and Families; Nancy Ross, National Alliance on Mental Illness; and Lt. Travis Rakestraw, Exploited and Missing Children Unit, Wichita, 12:30 to 1:20 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 17, Hesston Mennonite Church
• Etched in Sand book discussion with Libby Albers and Hesston College psychology instructor Kevin Wilder, 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 22, Hesston Public Library
• Etched in Sand book discussion with FYE director Marissa King, 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 28, Lincoln Perk

Anyone wanting to join the discussion and read Etched in Sand can be added to the Hesston Public Library waiting list or check out the e-copy using a library card through the Sunflower eLibrary.