LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo — A family in Lee’s Summit is continuing to honor their late daughter by giving back to the community.
Alyssa Noelle Audette died in 2011 at the age of 20 from an accidental prescription drug overdose.
After looking for a way to honor her, they launched “Alyssa’s Wishes” in 2018. It is a collection of nonprofits and projects that Audette would have loved, including the “Kindness Rocks” that KSHB 41 spotlighted back in 2022.
Audette’s mother, Karen Houck, says when she found out that local teachers were struggling with limited materials, the family launched their next project — “The Little Ladybug Library.”
It is a free “leave a book, take a book” library in her front yard that was created during the pandemic to service the community.
“I feel like the teacher job got harder, if that’s possible, you know more complicated," Houck said. "The last thing you need to do is worry about whether every 26 kids have a book to read in your classroom; I'm very passionate about trying to find all the people for the right books.”
Houck says Audette would have loved the idea as well, as they come from a family of readers and writers. The project just felt like a natural extension of their existing passion.
Teachers often reach out to her for recommendations or criteria, and Houck handpicks the books and makes them a “Teacher’s Box.”
“I find great purpose in doing that in her name, because then people come here and often I get asked, tell me about Alyssa,” Houck said. “At this point, we just crossed over the 22,000 book mark.”
Michelle Harris is a regular at the library. She has been an educator for 20 years, but no “teacher’s manual” could have prepared her for pandemic learning.
“I think everybody just did the best that they could with the resources that we had,” Harris said. “The budget is ‘this big’ and your ideas is ‘this big.’ That’s usually where the divide happens.”
She says Houck’s passion has become a shared joy among her little readers, too. Stocking her classroom with books from here has made it possible to keep Audette’s name alive.
“When they check out a book from our classroom library, they’ll be like, ‘I got one of the little ladybug books,’ and be really excited,” Harris said. “Just knowing that you can share the love and the message of somebody’s life with others even if you haven’t had that opportunity to know and to meet them is a really powerful thing.”
Anyone who wishes to donate to the library or browse, find more information on Alyssa's Wishes Facebook page.
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