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Local author gives her anti-bullying book to Austintown students
author donates books to students
By Justin Wier
AUSTINTOWN
Diane Demetrios has donated anti-bullying books to local elementary school students before.
This year, she’s providing students with a book she wrote.
Demetrios was at Austintown Elementary School Monday for a reading and giveaway of her children’s book, “Listen to Leslie.”
The book follows a girl who is anxious about her first day at a new school. When she is bullied by another student because of her looks, she convinces him the world is better if people embrace each other’s differences.
Leslie, the titular character, is named after Demetrios’ daughter who died of a drug overdose in 2013 at the age of 31. She attributed her daughter’s death in part to being bullied as a child.
She wanted to write the book for her grandchildren, but Demetrios said the year-and-a-half-long process was therapeutic for her.
“I was in a place in my life after losing my daughter that I needed this for myself, also,” she said.
This is the third time Demetrios has partnered with the local organization Making Kids Count to provide anti-bullying books to local students. The program is called Let’s Make a Difference.
The first year they went to Boardman Schools, and last year they went to both Boardman and Poland schools. This year, they’re planning on going to Boardman, Poland, Austintown and Canfield.
Demetrios raises funds for Let’s Make a Difference by selling candy bars. She said she’s sold 18,000 to date.
Colleen Eisenbraun, a program manager at Making Kids Count, said Demetrios approached the organization with the idea, and they let her run with it. With Demetrios’s book, Eisenbraun said the program won’t have to go look for a new book each year.
“Now we’ll be able to pass this one out every year,” she said.
Demetrios said a dearth of books about actual humans was part of what inspired her to write “Listen to Leslie.”
“Everything was about an animal,” she said. “Kids can relate to people so much better.”
At the reading, Demetrios’ daughter-in-law, Lora, read the book to second-graders in the Austintown Elementary School cafeteria. After the reading, Lora announced that all students would receive their own copy of the book. The cafeteria erupted with excitement.
Demetrios and Making Kids Count will be at the Boardman elementary schools today and Poland Elementary School on Wednesday. They plan to visit Canfield’s elementary schools in May.
While she wrote the book for her grandchildren, Demetrios wants it to have an impact on others as well.
“I hope that everybody can accept everybody for who they are,” Demetrios said.
She encouraged those who are interested in contributing to the Let’s Make a Difference program to contact Making Kids Count.
“When it’s all said and done, I do what any mom does,” Demetrios said. “I fight for my daughter.”