By RICK MILLER Olean Times Herald Mar 12, 2024
Children’s author and Portville native Mary Kay Worth spent much of the past year praying her special edition book would find its way to children in Ukraine.
“Hey Elephant Where Are You?” was republished last year with English and Ukrainian words and packed for shipment to Ukraine along with medical supplies by the Rochester-based volunteer charitable group RocMaidan.
Late last month, Worth was notified by email that children displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have received some copies of “Hey Elephant.” The email contained a photo and a video link.
“The medical supplies were delivered first,” Worth said in a recent email to the Times Herald. “Copies of ‘Hey Elephant Where Are You?’ were shipped to a center of psychological rehabilitation for children who suffered trauma from the war.”
The video can be seen at this link:
Check out Author Mary Kay Worth’s website as well — www.marykayworthofficial.com. She visits Cattaraugus County during summer months and often reads from her books at area libraries.
Worth is a 1972 Portville Central School graduate and former local special education teacher. Last year she set a goal of shipping 500 copies of “Hey Elephant” to displaced Ukrainian children.
The Ukraine translation was done by Lana Giovinelli, a Wellsville preschool teacher, Worth said.
Sprinkled throughout the book are Pysanky eggs, which are ornately painted with symbols. There are also two teaching pages in the books dealing with the eggs.
Worth raised funds through her website to pay for the books and shipping costs.
After a shipment of her books were held up in customs in Poland, she teamed up with RocMaidan to ship the books along with medical supplies
Local groups, including Rotary Clubs from Olean and Belmont, Jonah’s Attic in Portville and the Portville Presbyterian Church made donations to defray costs of getting the books to children in Ukraine.
Worth was a special education teacher who worked at Olean Middle School and Portville and was the first principal of the Angelica Campus at Genesee Valley Central School from 1996 to 2006. She then was superintendent at Southern Cayuga Central in the Finger Lakes, retiring in 2012.
After retiring, Worth continued publishing childrens books that included photos she took of her family and others over the years. Her books can be found on her website.
