Roosevelt Gives Back: Second-Grade Book Drive for Children's Hospital

By the Book

During the week of February 10-14, the second-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School led a Roosevelt Gives Back effort to collect gently used books for Boston Children's Hospital. It started with students in the Education Stations afterschool program decorating six empty boxes with illustrations and quotes from their favorite books. The boxes, says parent volunteer Amy Swan, didn’t stay empty for long.

“We had not anticipated that all six would be full after just a few days,” she says. “The generosity of the Roosevelt families was overwhelming. Eleven boxes later, we had collected 610 books for donation to the Child Life Services department.” Child Life Services is a unit at Boston Children’s that helps young patients better cope with staying at the hospital and understanding their medical situation. The books, in particular, are used not only for play and for fun reading, but also to help patients deal with feelings such as fear or separation.

In addition to Swan, other second-grade parent coordinators included Andrea Isabelle Lucas, Brooke Sulahian, and Karen Symond, who coordinated labeling each donated book with a Roosevelt Gives Back sticker.  Roosevelt Gives Back is an initiative started this school year at Roosevelt to show gratitude throughout our community and beyond for the efforts last year to fund our school playground.