By Connor Cain, student and volunteer
I first learned about Book Harvest when the Triangle Family Shule held a book drive. Somebody from Book Harvest talked with us about how some kids don’t have books to read. On the way home from that session, my Mom and I talked about what we learned and it made me a little upset thinking about how kids don’t have any books to read.
During this same time I was just starting to think about my mitzvah project. As part of my upcoming Bar Mitzvah, I had to do a service project for the community. After discussing it with my family I came to a decision to help Book Harvest collect books for kids in need. My original goal was to collect 613 books, one book for every commandment in the Torah.
The first book drive I held was at my birthday party. Instead of asking for presents, I asked for my friends to bring books. My first drive was a big success and I collected over 150 books. I held several other book drives including with my school, neighborhood, and baseball and hockey teams. My sister helped by asking her Girl Scout troop and softball team to donate books too. Thanks to some many friends, family and neighbors I collected over 1000 books.
During the summer, my Mom told me about a Summer Service Award challenge that ABC was organizing. The grand prize was $1000 toward your service project. I decided to enter my book drive into the contest and won. I was so happy because this would help so many more kids. I decided to spend the award money on used books at the Durham County Library book sale. That way, I could buy lots of books and help Book Harvest and the library at the same time.
I feel better as a person because not only have I completed my service project, but I will be impacting hundreds of kids. I hope that every child I help falls in love with reading which will lead to a fun and better education.