5th grader spreads her love of reading
Anna Claire Dudley, a soon-to-be-fifth-grade student at Butler Catholic School, loves to read.
So when the Rev. William Wuesnchel urged Butler Catholic School's third- through fifth-graders in his homily during the last school weekly Mass in May to come up with and complete a project that would help their family or community over the summer, Anna Claire decided she wanted to share her joy of reading with others.
What she never imagined is she would collect over 3,500 books to donate to children in the Butler area.
“I didn't think that many books would be donated, so it was a great surprise when people kept donating books,” said Anna Claire.
With the help of her mother and father, Kathy and Rich Dudley of Butler, Anna Claire set to work collecting new and used books from the middle of June through July 20.
She made posters and shared information on social media about her book drive for children. The Rev. Wuenschel's parish, St. Fidelis, included information in its weekly bulletin about the book collection times and drop-off locations around Butler. In total, over 3,500 books were collected in five weeks.
Kathy Dudley said, “We weren't expecting that many books. When we started, Anna Claire thought maybe we would get 500.
“But my husband and I put it on our Facebook pages. And the church bulletin reached a lot of people,” Dudley said.
After assessing and organizing the thousands of books collected, Anna Claire's first donation of 1,200 books went to Catholic Charities Pregnancy and Parenting Support Center in downtown Butler. The books will be available for pregnant mothers and parents of young children who might not otherwise have the resources to fill their nurseries with books.
Amber Crowe, program director of Butler Catholic Charities, said, “The center offers parenting and life skills to the newly pregnant. Books will be given to the parents' children up until the age of 2.”
While delivering the books to the center, Anna Claire got to meet one of the very young readers.
“I loved seeing the baby playing and interacting with the books at the Pregnancy and Parenting Center. I'm so glad to know the books will be going to children who will enjoy and learn from them,” she said.
Another almost 1,200 books were donated to the Butler YMCA. Children attending the Butler YMCA summer lunch program, as well as other children attending any of the YMCA summer programs, were invited and encouraged to select as many books as they liked to take home for free.
Anna Claire said she was grateful for all the support she received from the community in collecting books.
“I'm so thankful for all the book donations, and that the book drive will help so many kids,” she said.
Anna Claire still has another 1,500 books that will be donated to Catholic Charities in Butler for distribution and sharing through their homeless shelter program and to families in need.
“I'm glad the project turned out so well, and I will do another project in the future,” she said.
