By Amanda Shaver, Community Partner Manager
Attracted by BookSpring’s 20 Books by 2020 campaign, particularly the statistic about children with 20 or more books in their homes going on to achieve three more years of schooling than children in bookless homes, the Boy Scouts of Pack 20, Den 4 decided to contribute to the campaign by holding a book drive to benefit BookSpring.
The Scouts wanted to do what they could to ensure that all families in Austin would have the benefit of books in their homes, so they set a goal of collecting 500 books. Said Den 4 member Nicholas Storrer, “I feel good helping kids who don’t have books so they don’t get behind in reading.” Nicholas’ dad, Brian Storrer, said that all the boys felt like they would be able to make a significant difference for other kids right in their own community with their book drive project.
The idea of getting books to kids who need them truly resonated with the Scouts; they put a great deal of time and effort into collecting as many quality books as they could toward their goal.
Den 4 members placed collection boxes around town, including in their local Randall’s stores. Several of the Scouts even went door-to-door in their neighborhoods telling people about BookSpring and requesting book donations. All of that hard work paid off. Not only did these Scouts FAR exceed their goal, they set a new BookSpring record for a youth-led book drive by collecting 2,085 books for the Rebook program!
As BookSpring’s Community Partner Manager, I regularly get to interact with volunteers and book donors and always enjoy the experience. However, as a former teacher and as a parent myself, it is most meaningful for me to have the chance to talk with our younger generation of philanthropists. There is nothing more encouraging than being surrounded by a group of excited Boy Scouts all angling to tell me how much they love books, loved the chance to collect them for others, and love the feeling of making reading more accessible to everyone in their community.
Jaxon Reese said, “Helping other kids get books made me feel happy. I love reading, and I’m glad other kids can enjoy reading, too!” And, Sam Deterling said about the project, “It makes me want to help people more and it makes me feel good that I did something for my community.”
It was a true honor to meet these kind, motivated young record-breakers, and I am grateful to be able to put their donations to use through BookSpring’s Go Program and bring BookSpring a significant step closer to our 20 by 2020 goal.
Thank you to all of the incredible Den 4 Scouts: Cooper Baehr, Logan Barfoot, Sam Deterling, Jackson Ghangurde, Hugh Haverman, Knox Meley, Jaxon Reese, Luke Reneau, Nicholas Storrer, and Matthew Zalles.
