During this time of uncertainty, one group of Regina seniors wanted to make a difference in their community. They discovered that one in five 15 to 24-year-olds have not attended or completed primary school, making it harder for those groups to obtain jobs as adults. Seniors Sophie Hoffman, Maura Heneghan, Anna Griefelt, Abbey Farmer, McKenna O’Brien, Shaelyn Xie, Amy Regan, and Maeve Newton saw a problem with this, and decided to use their Leadership Scholars project to help.

The group met multiple times in the past months to plan how they were going to help. They researched and decided to create a project titled Regina Reads. The girls planned on making a donation book drop off area in the Saint Thecla Parish parking lot, so families from the area could make a contactless donation of new or slightly used books with a wide range of reading levels. Another idea they had was to record audiobooks for children to listen to, and to get other Regina students involved by offering service hours in exchange for time spent recording an audiobook.

Another aspect of their project was to use a free, online tutoring website called Educationbird to volunteer and tutor students in need of extra help.

Regina Reads collected the donated books on November 21st and 22nd, and the results were exactly what they’d hoped for. Over thirty people donated books, and multiple boxes of books were received. The group plans on donating the books to Jamieson Elementary School in Chicago.

The Regina Reads group members were very pleased with the results of the book drive. “I would say that our Regina Reads group has really come together this year. Our project has really taken off! It’s so cool to see all the girls so passionate about our cause, and it means a lot to be making a difference” said senior Maeve Newton.

“Regina Reads is an amazing opportunity to connect with a community that is not Regina,” said senior Amy Regan, “We are learning to lend a hand where help is needed most during hard times like these. These kids are the backbone of our future and without access to books, some kids may not be able to become fully sufficient readers. By giving children more resources to books at home and audiobooks their literacy skills will raise.”

The Regina Reads group certainly is making a difference already for this community that needs it. Their next step is to create a grab and go library for the books to be held in. They said they received so many books that they may donate another round to a different organization, Bernie’s Book Bank.