What started as a spring cleaning project turned into a donation of nearly 1,000 books to the benefit of students at a Los Angeles elementary school.
As our friends in the Los Alamitos Unified School District shared, Los Alamitos High School senior Brandon DeMarco and his mother, Rachael, were recently doing a little packing and organizing in anticipation of Brandon’s move to college. That’s when they realized they might be able to find good homes for the many books they’d collected over the years.
After a little brainstorming, the DeMarcos decided to donate the books to an elementary school near their family-owned business in East Los Angeles. And like most acts of kindness, it kind of rippled outward from there.
They wondered if others in the community wanted to join the cause, and after a few encouraging posts on social media, Brandon set up a table outside his home. Sure enough, families and community members arrived with their own books.
In an interview with the Event-News Enterprise, a Los Alamitos newspaper, Brandon characterized the response as “overwhelming.”
In fact, they ended up collecting more than 1,000 books, which were delivered last week to support nearly 800 students at Belvedere Elementary School, located roughly 20 miles north.
“They were all so happy to give their books to kids in need instead of the books sitting on shelves in their house unused,” Brandon said. “There’s going to be happy kids reading those books.”
We’re continuing to feature stories here as part of OCDE’s One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative. Be sure to submit yours at kindness1billion.org, and you can also share your good deeds on social media using the hashtag #kindness1billion.