Brownie troops hold book drive

Brownie Troop #28401 in Mt. Laurel has just completed an extremely successful book drive benefiting the BookMates program, an interfaith literacy program of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey and the Catholic-Jewish Commission. Several needy elementary and middle schools in Camden will receive the books.

The troop, which is comprised of 12 third-graders, collected over 3,600 books through generous donations from local schools, family and friends. One of the contributors was especially excited about the project because she was an alumnus of one of the receiving schools, McGraw Elementary School.

The girls chose this service project in order to share their love of books and reading. Exposure to books encourages a love of reading and provides children with a foundation to succeed in school.

As part of the project, the girls designed and distributed flyers, decorated collection boxes, picked up books and spoke to adults to get permission to collect the books in different venues. When the books started pouring in, the project continued with sorting and labeling getting them ready for distribution to the schools.

The project has been a great learning experience for the girls. They learned the importance of community service and the value of helping others.