The beauty of a book lies not only within its pages but in its ability to bring people together. There’s no better example of that than local 8th grader Ryleigh. Ryleigh was searching for a project for the NJHS at St. Raphael School when she came across Bernie’s Book Bank. Seeing the need for an increase in book ownership among local children, Ryleigh rallied her team and organized a book drive with the goal of collecting 500 books. When asked why she wanted to host a book drive Ryleigh replied “I hoped that it would encourage the children at St. Raphael to volunteer more and have a lasting impact on our community. I also hoped that we would be able to provide lots of children with nice books for them to read.”
However, with the support of her St. Raphael and the Naperville community, Ryleigh was able to collect a total of 2,857 books! St. Raphael School Vice Principal Jason Porod described Ryleigh as an inspiration saying, “Ryleigh did an outstanding job on this project. She involved the entire school and that is wonderful.”
Organizing a book drive is a great way to bring your community together and support Bernie’s Book Bank’s mission to empower local children to explore new ideas, gain knowledge, and strengthen reading skills. Together, we increase book ownership one book drive at a time! Contact Carol Collier to learn how you can organize a book drive!