The St. Charles High School National Honors Society is doing a book drive on the week of Oct. 27-31. Books are going to be donated to the Early Childhood Center and the Parents as Teachers program. The drive served as a competition between the AIPs in SCHS. Each AIP will be competing to see who can collect the largest amount of books and/or cash. Each book donated will add points to the respective AIP of the person donating, and all cash collected will be used to buy more books. At the end of the week, there will be a prize for the AIP with the most books and cash collected. There was also a spirit week to go along with the book drive as well.

“I think the book drive is important because it’s a good way to get books to kids in our district or families who might not be able to afford books for their children,” said Eleanor Curtis, NHS Secretary.

The Early Childhood Center in St. Charles is a preschool for children ages 3-5. They use the Parents as Teachers program which was made to help families when it was realized children have various levels of school readiness before kindergarten starts. How the program works is families are provided with in-home visits from parent educators who are employed by affiliate organizations in the St. Charles community. They help to increase parent’s knowledge in early childhood development, improve positive parenting practices, and many other things. 

“We chose a book drive because literacy is an important part in a child’s life and with everything that is going on in the world, the price of children’s books is outrageous,” NHS President Colleen Ney said. “Literacy is the foundation to a child’s learning journey and sets them up for life. We wanted to make a difference in a child’s life and set them up for success without their families having to worry about aging up their book levels constantly.” 

The fundraiser is sure to help many children and parents in need. Ney says that there are 600 students in the early childhood center and 600 in the parents as teachers program. She’s hoping this fundraiser will make a positive impact on the literacy skills of all of the children and that SCHS will continue to do this fundraiser each year.