Wausau Woman To Distribute Black History Children’s Books After Fundraiser Exceeds Goal

Kayley McColley wanted to purchase books about Black history for teachers and parents in the Wausau area. She started a GoFundMe page with a goal of $150. In just over week, she’s made that goal nearly 20 times over, with $2,920 in pledges as of Friday afternoon.

McColley, a 20-year-old nursing student, said she’s been heartened by the community’s response to her fundraiser. She’s already working with local teachers to arrange for classroom donations, and looking for other ways to get Black history books into the hands of kids of all ages.

The project grew out of a storytelling circle McColley hosted for Black History Month in February 2020, when she read to kids at a local coffee shop. It was a way to connect kids and families with quality children’s books — “Hair Love” by Matthew Cherry and “Hidden Figures” by Margo Lee Shetterly are a couple of her favorites — and to facilitate age-appropriate conversations about race, stereotyping and discrimination.

“Adults have this misconception that if we don’t talk about race, or we take on a colorblind mindset, that’s going to make kids not racist or discriminatory,” McColley said.

But not talking about something, she said, doesn’t stop children from making their own observations about the world, including racial stereotypes or racist ideas they may absorb from others or from the culture at large.

“When we don’t have these open conversations with our kids about racial inequity, we really are just contributing to racial biases,” McColley said.

Since an in-person storytime isn’t a pandemic-safe activity, this year a librarian with the Marathon County Public Library reached out to McColley about doing video storytime events for the library’s YouTube and Facebook pages. She started the fundraising campaign as a way to further extend the impact of the project in a socially distant way.

Her $150 fundraising goal, she said, was “was surpassed within the hour.”

[[{“fid”:”1273791″,”view_mode”:”full_width”,”fields”:{“format”:”full_width”,”alignment”:””,”field_image_caption[und][0][value]”:”%3Cp%3EKayley%20McColley%2C%2020%2C%20addresses%20protesters%20at%20the%20George%20Floyd%20March%20in%20Wausau%2C%20June%206%2C%202020.%20McColley%20said%20she%20was%20%22shocked%20in%20the%20best%20of%20ways%22%20at%20the%20turnout%20of%20some%201%2C500%20people%20to%20the%20Wausau%20event.%26nbsp%3B%3Cem%3ERob%20Mentzer%2FWPR%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A”,”field_image_caption[und][0][format]”:”full_html”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Kayley McColley addresses protesters at the George Floyd March in Wausau”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Kayley McColley addresses protesters at the George Floyd March in Wausau”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”full_width”,”alignment”:””,”field_image_caption[und][0][value]”:”%3Cp%3EKayley%20McColley%2C%2020%2C%20addresses%20protesters%20at%20the%20George%20Floyd%20March%20in%20Wausau%2C%20June%206%2C%202020.%20McColley%20said%20she%20was%20%22shocked%20in%20the%20best%20of%20ways%22%20at%20the%20turnout%20of%20some%201%2C500%20people%20to%20the%20Wausau%20event.%26nbsp%3B%3Cem%3ERob%20Mentzer%2FWPR%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A”,”field_image_caption[und][0][format]”:”full_html”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Kayley McColley addresses protesters at the George Floyd March in Wausau”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Kayley McColley addresses protesters at the George Floyd March in Wausau”}},”link_text”:false,”attributes”:{“alt”:”Kayley McColley addresses protesters at the George Floyd March in Wausau”,”title”:”Kayley McColley addresses protesters at the George Floyd March in Wausau”,”class”:”media-element file-full-width”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]

McColley was one of the organizers of a Black Lives Matter march in Wausau in June that was among the largest mass protests in the city’s history. She sees this project as an extension of that social justice work.

“It might not be as eye-catching as a protest,” she said, “but reading to your kids about race and Black history, that’s what’s really going to get change in motion.”

And she has a challenge to the community, too.

“After I’ve had this funding, and after I purchase these books and disseminate them to the appropriate people, I need folks to read them,” she said. “I need people to not be scared to have these conversations with your kids.”