Emmaus High School Key Club Featured on PBS-39 Show Tonight

The PBS news magazine show "Tempo In Depth" this week will feature the student organizers of a book donation project that has amassed and distributed more than 28,000 books to area schools.

Airing at 7:30 tonight and again at 11 p.m., the weekly news magazine on PBS 39 will focus on "Terrific Teens," including the students in the EHS Key Club.

Other segments feature a music video made by three juniors, a freshman who is a musician and composer, and a jazz ensemble from .

The Emmaus Key Club has been working with Cops 'n Kids Lehigh Valley, a non-profit organization that promotes literacy, to collect donated books, label them and distribute them to area schools. Over three years, Emmaus students helped collect the books from East Penn schools and businesses in town, said club adviser Lisa Wells.

"We go to the schools and each student is handed his or her own book to keep," Wells said. "The main idea is promoting literacy and paying it forward."

Each book has a label in it for the student to write his or her name, and in many cases the student volunteers sign them as well, after reading the book to the child, she said. Among the schools that have benefited from the book donation project are Sheridan and Union Terrace elementary schools in Allentown.

On Thursday, Nov. 17, Tempo In Depth producers invited 24 members and two advisers of the Key Club to watch this week's episode being taped at PBS 39's studios in South Bethlehem. 

Tempo reporter Laura McHugh taped segments with the Key Club at an officer's meeting earlier this month, and on Oct. 26 at Coca-Cola Park in the Iron Pigs suites, where the Cops and Kids organization had set up a night of trick or treating for children who don't normally get to do so. 

Allison Houghton, 17, dressed as the tooth fairy and gave out toothbrushes at the Iron Pigs event and as the club's president, has helped organize many of the club's distribution days at area schools.

Being on the news program is "incredibly humbling," Houghton said. "It's also awesome to get some recognition."

McHugh said she picked the Emmaus Key Club for a segment because she wanted a story that didn't feature amazing athletes or musicians.

"I loved that any kid could do what they are doing," McHugh said. "They are an example to kids of any age. You can work hard and be a true inspiration."

The Terrific Teens episode will re-air on Wednesday and Friday nights this week.