Author raising money for Cambodian school

Tue, Mar. 04, 2008
By JENNIFER BHARGAVA
The Kansas City Star (USA)

Kari Grady Grossman is coming to northeast Johnson County to tell her story.

The Wyoming resident, and author of Bones That Float, A Story of Adopting Cambodia, will be giving a presentation at St. Agnes Catholic Parish this weekend about her efforts to help children in the Asian country.

She will read excerpts from her book, answer questions, show a short documentary and offer ways Kansas City area residents can help.

The presentations are part of her small grass-roots campaign, started seven years ago.

When Grady Grossman and her husband adopted their son from Cambodia in 2001, she said, their lives took a drastic turn.

Struck by the poor conditions surrounding children in the Third World country, the couple raised money to build the Grady Grossman School there.

“After we built the school, we thought we would go home with the baby and continue our normal lives,” Grossman said. “But when we took a trip back, we realized that the school wouldn’t be able to function without community support.”

She is trying to raise money for teacher salaries, school supplies and education for the community on how to operate the school. She would like to come up with a business model that could serve as a pilot for other schools in Cambodia.

The experience prompted her to write a book and start an organization with her husband called “Friends of the Grady Grossman School.”

Now she is asked by readers all over the United States to come and tell her story.
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Appearance

Kari Grady Grossman will be holding a presentation at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday at St. Agnes Catholic Church and School, 5250 Mission Road in Roeland Park. She will be selling books and Cambodian silk and silver crafts after the show. All proceeds will benefit the Grady Grossman School in Cambodia.

For more information, visit www.gradygrossman