Book Club’s book drive collected over 300 books new and used children’s and adult’s books for the Upper Room and Journey House in Kansas City. This is the first time that the Book Club has held a book drive, but the outcome was greater than senior club president Chloe Long expected.

“I was really nervous about this being the first time,” Long said. “It’s awesome to see so much being donated.”

The inspiration for starting the book drive came from wanting to do more for the community and happened to be perfect timing for the “season of giving” according to Long. The Upper Room especially will benefit from the books donated. The Upper Room needs more books for their community education programs that hope to nurture urban neighborhoods by offering programs according to upperroomprogram.org.

“Christmas is a time to give,” senior book club member Grace Prusa said. “Most people don’t ask for books for Christmas, but we don’t really realize that some people don’t have the opportunities that we have.”

The hope going forward is that the club will continue this tradition of giving books.  The club hopes that whole school will continue to value the gift of giving according to Long. The Upper Room is always looking for donations, and Journey House is trying to start their own library according to Book Club sponsor Casey Engel.

“It doesn’t mean much just to drop a few books in a box,” Long said. “But to someone that isn’t getting any presents or extra love in this season of giving, it could mean everything.”