The RM Book Drive, which concluded November 20, raised 2,473 books in total to donate to Kenya Polkadot library. RM’s goal was to reach at a minimum 1,000 books, which was achieved by the senior class alone. The seniors won the class competition with 1,054 books, earning donuts for the entire class.
The juniors finished second with 791 books. The freshman class finished third with 373 books, while the sophomores finished last with 138 books. Additionally, the teachers donated 117 books.
The books, mainly targeted for K-8th grade readers, will be donated to the Polkadot library in Kenya, which will be built specifically for kids. Christyne Nasbe, a peace corp veteran, decided to start the library after volunteering in Kabarnet, Kenya. She realized that the children only could access the library once a year, as priority is given to high schoolers.
The library, once constructed, will be a 40 foot shipping container, covered with polka-dots. It will include a garden, run on solar power, and be completely sustainable. Freshman Class Secretary Ananya Krishnan said, “The woman who was organizing this was generous enough to donate $1,000 to the library to build a bench dedicated to our school.”
The books RM collected spanned many genres, but as Senior Class President Zack Khan also pointed out, “The typical mainstream series of books, we got a lot of those, which is good, because that’s what kids like for the most part.”
Krishnan remarked, “The participation this year was really great. It was a big comeback from the low participation rate from the Canned Food Drive. Each of the class officers worked really hard to motivate their class to get the most books. I think the donut party was a good incentive.”
Krishnan’s sentiment was shared by Khan, who said, “A good amount of people participated. A lot of people have books lying around the house.” Khan also noted, “It was the first time in a while when we did a competition among classes. And there’s more class competition because seniors and juniors want to compete against each other. At one point there was just a five book difference. I think it was Wednesday night, Seniors were at 405 and Juniors were at 400, so people were tweeting like,’Bring your books and beat the seniors’, and it helps. It was pretty effective.”
Krishnan said, “I would consider the results to be very successful.” Indeed, the RM book drive was successful, raising a 2,473 books for a noteworthy cause.
