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From Wednesday, March 27 until Friday, April 12, the Wayland High School Student Corps is collecting books to donate to prisoners. The Student Corps is an extracurricular club that organizes events with volunteer opportunities. This particular fundraiser supports the Prison Book Program, which increases prisoners’ access to reading materials. Books that are donated must be paperback, free of stains and free of annotations. The rest of the guidelines can be seen at the Prison Book Program’s website. The books can be dropped off outside of the WHS main office in a box dedicated to the book drive.
Student Corps President and junior Alyssa Ao discovered the Prison Book Program while looking for fundraising ideas. She explained that at this time of year, there aren’t many food drives due to the lack of holidays and the cold weather, which makes planning outside events difficult. As a result, she researched non-profit organizations that were within Wayland.
“I found out about the Prison Book Program in Quincy, which provides reading materials and books,” Ao said. “They also collect notebooks, coloring books and things alike. [This drive] will help people in prisons educate themselves and pursue their hobbies because prisons are usually very limited.”
The Prison Book Program hopes to provide prisoners with books that fit their interests and needs. The program also aims to connect prisoners with people outside of prison in order to create connections.
“Having access to books can be used as a form of self improvement and help educate prisoners,” sophomore and Student Corpse member Jeffery Mao said. “[This fundraiser] is nice because it creates a sense of connection between the people in the prison and the wider community.”
According to Ao, the Prison Book Program prioritizes the education of people in prison and emphasizes the idea that reading should be accessible for everyone, no matter their current status or past choices.
“I think it’s really great that this program is providing resources for prisoners that they otherwise wouldn’t have, because it’s a shame that people in prison are deprived of those resources,” Ao said.
The goal of the Student Corps’ book drive is to highlight the idea that reading has an effect on everyone. Student Corps members hope that the books they donate will create a sense of community and enjoyment amongst the prisoners, and urge students to donate books if they are able to.
“The book drive is important because everyone should be able to access as many books as possible,” junior and Student Corps Secretary Kanmani Sekhar said. “I would encourage people to donate books, since I think people usually have books laying around that they don’t read anymore.”
