Special thanks go to the Pasadena Star News for their permission to reprint this article in its entirety.
Holmes, Watson going to school
District libraries get sleuth classics
By Joshua M. Pelzer, Correspondent
Pasadena Star News
PASADENA - Betting that the fascination with the crime-solving magic of Sherlock Holmes is timeless, the Curious Collectors of Baker Street have presented copies of the classic stories to every school in the Pasadena Unified School District.
Each school got two copies of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classics, including illustrated versions for elementary schools and novel versions for middle and high schools.
The Collectors, a Los Angeles-based group, donated the 62 copies, together with the Pasadena Schools Federal Credit Union, to expose PUSD students to the ever-popular detective tales.
"What we try to do is pick out some of the less fortunate districts and go after those first," said Jerry Kegley, president of Curious Collectors of Bakers Street. "That's kind of our basis for going about it."
Two years ago, the group made the same donation to each of the 140 libraries in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
"The feedback has been very, very positive so far," said Kegley. "The (school) libraries were hurting for material of any sort and once they got their hands on the books, they were using them."
PSFCU, with 8,500 members including educators, students and private sector employees in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre, contributed $400 to buy the books.
"This is just something that we want to do to say thank you to our members and give something back," said Lia Puspa-Jones, marketing coordinator for PSFCU. "We try to support a lot of activities and this was something we thought was very unique.'
Kegley said only the Bible has been published in more languages than the Sherlock Holmes series, which includes 56 short stories and four novels from 1887 through 1926.
"Like with anything, you have to bring an awareness to the youth or things don't carry on," said Kegley. "The only way that is ever going to happen is for the older generation to get the younger generation interested in that kind of thing, too."