Books For Charity
Would you give your birthday presents up? Ryan Skarnulis did, and he is only 9 years old. Instead of the normal over-the-top birthday party, he wanted a charity party. He set out to collect 3,285 books to donate to Reach Out and Read. I know you are all wondering why 3,285 books. According to him, “When I turn 9, that’s how many days I have been living, so that’s what I wanted to do. One book per every day of my life”. Since he made this statement to a local paper here in Illinois, he has inspired the donation of over 6,000 books.
His birthday party yielded 1,200 books in 2 hours. Banks, churches, and schools held book drives and sent the books to Ryan. Strangers left books on his doorstep. People order books from online bookstores and sent them to their house.
To quote their site:
Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation.
This is a great cause, and I would love for this little boy to be able to collect even more books. You can donate either books or money to help. If you do donate to them, please let them know that Ryan Skarnulis and I sent you.
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20 Responses to “Books For Charity”
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That’s a pretty amazing little kid! I have to admit I’m not nearly as selfless: if I gave up my b-day presents, I’d never get some of the things I really want but feel too guilty about spending money on myself.
I agree. And I know I would have never thought this big when I was 9.
That’s really thoughtful for a kid to do such a thing. I admire him!
What a thoughtful kid! I wonder if his parents told him to do it? Hmm… Just kidding!
I know that when I was 9 all I thought about was the Jerry Lewis Telethon and I did collect for that. But, it never would have occurred to me to do what this 9 year old has done. What a kid!!! WOW!
That’s fantastic! I don’t get presents for my birthday anymore, but that’s an amazing kid.
[...] published at 5 Minutes for Mom – this month I write about reading with your kids. So when I read Lisa’s (My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings) post about the nine-year-old that hosted a charity book drive at his birthday party, I thought I’d [...]
[...] presents Books For Charity posted at My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. It’s always good to give the gift of [...]
Here for carnival.
What a great story of a giving, caring, unselfish child. His parents must be so proud.
My kids have done this at their last few birthdays. We talked about how they receive way more than they could ever need even before a birthday party and we asked them who they would like to donate their presents to. One child, an animal lover, chose The Humane Society. When we send out the invitations, we state “No presents but if you would like to make a donation to… “. My son got more joy out of going to deliver the bags of dog food and toys than he ever would have gotten out of playing with some cheap toy for a few weeks. He still talks about this experience almost a year later. I highly recommend this practice for families.
I like this idea for my adult party. I never get what I want anyways…the animal shelter or wherever would get much better use out of the money that would be spent on my gifts. Wonderful idea…
Great kid. Gives me hope that the children will straighten out the mess we adults have made of the Earth.
His parents must be proud.
haha…I just noticed you were using this theme. I have been using it for a finance blog I made a while back as well. Very good theme. Is this the widget ready version?
I had some trouble with the RSS feeds working at first, but found the problem with some blank space in one of the files. Wouldn’t remember which it was for the life of me now…lol
[...] presents Books For Charity posted at My Thoughts, Ideas, and [...]
[...] Lisa brought a grin to my face with Books for Charity. [...]
I’m all about sharing books and encouraging other people to read. I love it that a boy so young “gets it” and is so willing to share with others!
Mahalo for sharing the good news!
I’m all about sharing books and encouraging other people to read. I love it that a boy so young “gets it” and is so willing to share with others!
Mahalo for sharing the good stuff!
Aww that was sweet of him.
Here from spread some sunshine.
This is the second time I’ve read this story and I am still so touched by what this child is doing.