SCOTTSDALE – Organizations and individuals have collected food, clothes and other necessities to help hurricane victims. However, two Scottsdale sisters wanted to do something different and held a book drive at Cochise Elementary School and Arizona School for the Arts.
Taylor and Sydney Levin started the book drives to go to the Denton Independent Elementary School District in Texas, for possible redistribution to schools.
“We didn’t want to do anything average, we wanted to do a little more,” Taylor said. “We decided to do a book drive because everyone probably lost all their books in the flood.”
Taylor, a sixth grader at the arts school, wants to study meteorology when she is older. She said she watches the Weather Channel every day with her family. After they saw how hard Hurricane Harvey hit Texas they wanted to do something for the victims.
Their father, Scott Levin, let them decide what to do and encouraged them. For three weeks, the girls made phone calls to companies asking for donations. Levin drove them to collect the books and other items.
Several places helped out, including Home Depot, Scottsdale Public Library, Changing Hands bookstores, Half Price Books and American Transportation.
Both Taylor and Sydney made boxes with bright signs for the book drive that included facts about the aftermath of the disaster in Texas.
Sydney (left) and Taylor (right) Levin started book drives at their school for Hurricane Harvey victims.(Photo courtesy of Scott Levin)
They initially wanted to collect 5,000 books.
The girls collected the books from their schools every day and took them home to organize. They said they were excited they could help people who need it.
“Our garage is full of boxes and books, so we have to park our cars outside,” Sydney said.
“It makes me feel really good because I’m doing something for a good cause,” said Taylor, a fourth grader at Cochise Elementary School.
The girls don’t have a total number of books just yet. The book drives have ended at the schools, but people can still donate books until Oct. 13 at Mountain View Park and Community Center, next to Cochise Elementary School at 8625 E. Mountain View Road in Scottsdale.