The Children’s Book Bank is an organization that aims to improve children’s literacy, especially, it concerns the children whose family have low income and less possibilities to enlarge knowledge and personal skills. This Bank provides children with books before they go to kindergartens. In order to present reliable and good books to children, the members and activists of the Children’s Book Bank collect, donate, repair books, and make them available to families absolutely free. I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in these activities and help the members of the Children’s Book Bank to repair donated books; it was a great experience where I could not only contact with new people and improve my personal skills, but also help lots of children and make them really happy.
I have already participated in numerous activities: group researches, interviews, experiments at labs, etc. However, this activity, repairing books for children who cannot allow having any book they want, made me feel really great. The feeling that my work will help someone else motivated me a lot. I could not but think that one day a little girl or boy would read this or that book, repaired by me, and would be happy. I did not care about payment or some other award for my work. The only thought that I had in mind during the whole work was that such a work could make someone else happier, even happier than me. On my opinion, this is the best award anyone can ever get.
Not long time ago, I have watched a movie by Warner Brothers, You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. In this movie, the main characters owned bookshops with plenty of different books for children. Observing how happy the children who come to these shops are, I realized that I also want to and can do something for them absolutely free.
During constant course readings and discussions, students realize more and more that not every child have an opportunity to have any book or another thing he/she wants. So, I have got to know about the Children’s Book Bank and decided that such activity is just what I needed. I had too many ideas in order to implement them with the help of such banks.
One of the last projects at the Children’s Book Bank was to provide children with an opportunity to read any book right in the bank in comfortable chairs under control of sophisticated people. To my mind, it is also possible to allow parents read books to children in the bank as well. Parents may also have low level of literacy, and such way can help them not only improve their reading skills but also spend more time with their children.
In fact, civic involvement into such activities as donating and repairing books for children who have families with low income is good indeed. It is not similar to any other activity I have ever participated. Well-disposed people who care about the others, desire to help, and make other people happier – this is exactly what I like in this activity. The major point is that such kind of work is helpful not only to other people, but also to me. I have learnt that good actions that do not really matter for even me at first, may be crucially important to some other people with time.