The week before winter break, students donated a variety of books to the Books For Africa book drive. When Julia Johnson, junior, saw that the book donation bins outside the HHS lunch room were filled to the brim, she knew that the French Club’s hard work had paid off.

“[The full bins] made me feel really good,” Johnson said. “It was a good idea to make the book drive organized by class, which created a competition, ultimately leading to more donated books.”

The Books For Africa drive was created by the HHS French club. The club’s idea was to collect books and send them to countries with higher rates of illiteracy or educational problems. According to Johnson, another motivator behind organizing the book drive was the personal connection.

“For us, since we are a French club, and Africa is a French-speaking continent, [the book drive] really provided a connection to those people in Africa receiving the books,” Johnson said.

Since 1986, the Books For Africa organization has been collecting books all throughout the United States. It costs 50 cents to ship a book to Africa, and each book received in Africa is sent to a location to be received by the local people.

“We bring books to the teacher who then brings it to the facility that is close to HHS,” Johnson said.  “From there, they send the books to Africa.”

In 2014 alone, Books For Africa shipped 2.4 million books to Africa. A major shipment included 22,000 books distributed to countries affected by Ebola, such as Liberia. Before that, a shipment arrived in Senegal with 50,000 books that were both in French and English.

According to Celine Bartels-Mills, senior, this drive was an opportunity for HHS utilize their opportunities to instigate change.

“Here [at HHS] we have great opportunities to read and write, and as a club, we want other to have those opportunities as well,” Bartels-Mills said. “[The French club] thinks that this cause is great. I think the school is happy that we are helping others and giving [students in Africa] the opportunities we have.”

Kristina Myankova, senior, believes that the book drive was an opportunity for HHS to build community.

“People should feel happy that we’re helping other people have the same opportunities we have,” Myankova said. “This is a great opportunity for us to unite and come together as a school.”

HHS’s donation is currently in the warehouse, being prepared to ship out to Africa.

“The more people become aware about other world problems, and the more we help individuals one day at a time, we can begin to make the world a better place,” Myankova said.