Second Warriors Day honors Atkins girl’s death

By Amy Widner

RUSSELLVILLE — For the second year in a row, the Russellville-area community will honor the memory of Emmy Cherry - who died in the Feb. 5, 2008, tornado that struck Atkins - with an event that honors what she loved most: reading, animals and her community.

Warriors Day, named for Cherry’s favorite book series, will include a book sale, bake sale, yard sale and pet adoption drive on Saturday in the parking lot in front of Vintage Books at 602 E. Parkway Drive in Russellville.

There will be more than 2,000 books for sale for 50 cents and $1. Eight rare signed Warriors series books will be auctioned off. There will also be a contest students can enter by donating a can of cat food or any dollar amount. They can submit poetry, art work or prose. A winning name will be drawn from a jar, and that student will have their piece critiqued by a Warriors series author in their own handwriting.

Inspired by last year’s outpouring of community spirit, both local and across the globe, the gifted and talented students at Pottsville Middle School are coordinating this year’s event. They have organized for the funds raised to be split between animal welfare organizations and a new fund called the Brightspirit Book Scholarship Fund, which will purchase books for Pope County middle schools.

Pottsville Schools gifted and-talented coordinator Diane Hancock said gifted-and talented students are chosen for the test scores and creativity, but they’re also chosen for their motivation.

“It’s not enough to be intelligent and not use it,” Hancock said. “What I’m hoping is that they won’t think, ‘I’m smart, so I don’t have to do anything.’ So the idea is to get them out there with the yard sale, the book sale, the bake sale and the animals, and I think they’ll feel that. I think they’ll bond [with the community and a sense of volunteerism] in a way that they can’t do in the classroom.”

In fact, the Pottsville fifth grade gifted-and-talented students chose the project because many of them saw the good that came of last year’s event. And once the fifth-graders got the ball rolling for this year’s event, other gifted and talented students from fourth to ninth grade have volunteered to help, Hancock said.

The event will be a scaleddown version of last year’s Warriors Day, when the Warriors series authors signed two sets of the 18-book fantasy series about clans of cats living in the wild:one for Cherry’s school and another to be auctioned off for a charity in Cherry’s name.

The Warriors series authors all live in the United Kingdom. Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry and Victoria Holmes write under the pen name of Erin Hunter. Last year’s fundraiser was the first time all three authors had signed copies of the book instead of using the Erin Hunter pen name.

Holmes came to Russellville for last year’s event, which was hosted by Vintage Books. An avid reader, Cherry frequented the store, and its owner, Lynn Wiman, contacted Holmes about finding a way to honor Cherry, who died in the tornado along with her parents, Jimmy and Dana.

Holmes was touched by Emmy’s story, as were other Warriors fans on the series’ Web site who suggested the Cherry family be included in the series.Names were collectively chosen: Braveheart for Jimmy, Shiningheart for Dana and Brightspirit for Emmy.

During Holmes’ trip to Russellville, she did everything from judge animal contests to pose for countless photographs at $1 a piece for the fundraiser. Last year’s event raised $15,000. She also promoted literacy by visiting schools in Pottsville, Atkins, Russellville, Dover, Hector and Clarksville.

Holmes cannot attend this year’s event, but sent out a press release saying how proud she was to have been a part of Warriors Day 2008 and how proud she is now of the Pottsville students for continuing the tradition.

“In every interview I do as the author of Warriors and Seekers, I am asked what is my proudest achievement,” Holmes said in the press release. “Is it selling almost 10 million books all around the world? Beingon the New York Times Bestseller List for six years without a break? Attracting over a thousand people to a reading from the latest book? No, it’s none of these. My proudest achievement, without which my books would be nothing but dust, is being allowed to share in the grief for a beautiful, gifted child called Emmy Grace Cherry, and to be part of the amazing, immeasurable good that has been done in her memory.”

More information is available by calling Vintage Books at (479) 880-2152.

- awidner@arkansasonline.com

River Valley Ozark, Pages 66 on 10/08/2009

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