Christmas has come early for students at Evergreen Park School in Moncton, NB. Their school library was vandalized a few months ago and their story of good overcoming evil plays out like a classic children’s book.

Marie Law is the librarian at the school.  She said vandals smashed through the library window this past summer and the school was forced to throw out more than 2,000 children’s books riddled with tiny shards of glass.

“I thought anybody who would vandalize a school library just for the sake of doing it was pretty low”, Law said.

She said with students returning to school amid the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic, she knew she needed to act quickly to restore the books. Law said she launched a book drive thinking she might be able to raise a few thousand dollars to buy some new books.

But Christmas, as they say, came early.

“I start getting emails and phone calls from people not only in Moncton and the surrounding areas but from other parts of New Brunswick and other parts of Canada,” Law said.

Word had gotten out over social media, she said, and boxes upon boxes of books and cash donations started pouring in from businesses, publishing companies, and everyday folks from around the globe; some as far away as Europe.

“I think that everyone around the world can understand the impact that can have on a student population that is already struggling with some covid restrictions,” said Luc Malenfant, community schools coordinator for the Anglophone East School District.