Instead of leaving their unused books in a corner to collect dust, students donated them. On Feb. 11, participants donated over 1,500 books to Ghesquiere Park and the Head Start Program in Detroit through Interact Club’s annual Book Drive.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 42 percent of American children grow up in low income families with little to no children’s books at their home. To change this, the club collected books for over a month in order to help less fortunate families.

In past years Interact Club has donated books to various schools, but this year they set up a small library at Ghesquiere Park. In addition, they helped freshman and member Garrett Schreck, who is working on his Eagle Scout, to donate books for preschoolers in the Head Start Program.

Schrek has been involved in book drives before at Grosse Pointe City and donated the books to Rotary International, an international service organization. 

“(The Rotary International) had a very successful book drive,” he said. “I think it brought everyone together, all working for the common goal of helping the kids in Detroit.”

Sophomore Kitty Clark believes this event put education in perspective for her. She thinks the club’s donations will help many kids learn to read.

“I think having books and libraries available to communities everywhere is very important,” Clark said. “Education is something we take for granted a lot of the time and I think everyone deserves to have access to books.”

Although the club accepted both adult and children’s books, they devised a main goal of increasing the amount of children reading material. Interact Club adviser Barbara Skelly hopes their contributions will increase book accessibility.

“I love this idea because I’m a big reader and I think everyone should read,” she said. “We want to make books available so people could just take them and then bring them back when they’re done with them. And we want kids to read, so we (got) a lot of children’s books.”

Senior Jay Garlapati believes the book drive is a great way to boost the development of kids at a young age.

“Interact Club is all about helping the community and finding new ways to improve knowledge around the community. So, (the) book drive is a way where we can kind of increase the amount of knowledge in the community because we will be providing books to local libraries,” Garlapati said. “We know they’re going to libraries in need so that’s a great way to help the community.”

According to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, reading and getting lost in imaginative tales increases empathy. Clark thinks the donations will help kids open up their minds to new things, something she believes is necessary in childhood.

“I think (the kids will) be excited,” Clark said. “Books kind of open up your mind and they open up your world, and everyone loves a good story so I think it’s going to be really good.”

Interact Club’s contributions to the community will have a big impact on many families in Detroit. Not only will the book drive help others in need, but it will also give volunteer students skills that they will use in the future.

Schreck plans on using his experience from this year’s drive in order to improve the annual event.

“I learned a lot of important leadership skills,” Schreck said. “Also, I learned that many people are willing to help out with the project and with somebody that they never met before (so) it was really cool.”

Throughout the drive, Clark gained a strong sense of altruism. She hopes her knowledge can propel her to do even more good in the community.

“I learned how much just one idea can change a community, which was something that I always kind of do but I never experience first hand,” she said. “I think I just found out a lot more about the student body, and how much people actually do care about the community that we live in and how much people are willing to give.”