Published: March 29, 2008 10:56 pm         

Enid pupils working on district’s 2nd book project

The sequel to “ABC Enid” is in the making, and community members still can take part in helping sponsor Enid High School special education students’ “123 Enid.”

Gretchen Lade, EHS special education teacher and coordinator for “123 Enid,” said they’re still looking for sponsors for some pages in the book. Interested individuals can contact her at gmlade@enidk12.org or 242-2404.

The book project pairs students with moderate to severe disabilities with their non-disabled peers, following a similar format used last year to create the ABC book.

Students involved in last year’s project had input into every decision made — from choosing the topics for the pictures to choosing the font style and using an adaptive keyboard to type the narrative.

“ABC Enid” featured Enid landmarks and people corresponding with letters of the alphabet. “123 Enid” features a similar format with numbers instead of letters.

On March 28, students took care of No. 23 at Enid Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Pictures were taken with 23 dogs to represent the number of kennels at SPCA’s new facility.

Other topics of the book include the number of swings at Meadowlake Park — six — and control towers in Enid — two.

Lade said ideas for each number followed the interests of her students, and they’ve tried to encompass many aspects of Enid. No. 1 is Leona Mitchell, opera singer, and number 19 is the number of chandeliers in the Knox Building.

“123 Enid” will count from 1-25, then include 50, the number of students working on the project; 75, the number of EHS football players; and 100, the number of band members photographed in the shape of Oklahoma, honoring the state’s Centennial.

Lade said Jaci Tolbert’s special education students from Monroe Elementary School are helping with the project.

Several of Lade’s students are working with the project and are proud of their accomplishments.

“It’s nice to see relationships form over a project like this,” she said.

She said she’s hoping to have everything for the book finished by May, except for a page detailing statues created by Enid artist Harold Holden. One of his statues will be unveiled in May, and once that information has been entered Lade said she hopes to have the book sent to the publisher. She said the book could be available for sale to the public by October.

Funding for “123 Enid” is coming from ING, a global financial services company, from which Lade applied for a grant.

ING announced in August 2007 Lade was one of a number of teachers awarded grants for projects. The ING Unsung Heroes grant is providing Lade with $2,000 for her students to publish the book.

ING officials said “123 Enid” will bring math to life for students with moderate and severe disabilities by using the things they see daily — people, places and objects — to learn about counting, fractions and other math concepts.

The “ABC Enid” book was the brainchild of Lade and was years in the making. She came up with the idea when she was on a professional development trip. Two books — “ABC NYC: A Book About Seeing New York City” and “Museum ABC,” by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gave her the inspiration. But Lade said her disabled brother, Michael, helped get the project off high center during a car ride on the East Coast a couple of years ago. When Michael spotted a letter he recognized on a passing bus, Lade knew it was a message for her.

“He said, ‘Look, M is for Michael,’” Lade said.

Not long after the book was published and recognized by Enid Public Schools board members, Lade said she was inspired to do it again.