After slight setbacks in planning and organization, Red Cross Youth Task Force (Red Cross YTF) managed to pull through and start a children’s book drive to help support the residents of the Northern Virginia Training Center (NVTC), a facility that provides a home for the mentally handicapped.

Every Wednesday evening there is a reading group for the intellectually disabled at the NVTC. However the lack of books at the residency leads to constant repetition at the readings over the years.

“Since sophomore year, I have been part of a reading group,”  senior Heun Min, the secretary of the club, said. “As I became more involved, I noticed that a number of the books at the NVTC library was dwindling, so I thought that it would be nice to help organize a book drive at Jefferson to increase the variety of books that the volunteers can read to the residents.”

This isn’t the first time that Red Cross YTF has hosted a book drive. Last year, many students donated old children’s picture books, but this year Red Cross is hoping for even more success.

“The people who volunteer at the NVTC do incredible work to make the resident’s lives as enjoyable as possible,” vice president and senior Nathan Williams said. “These books will go a long way in helping them achieve this goal.”

The drive will be officially running from Nov. 11 until Thanksgiving break. Donors will receive one National Honour Society (NHS) hour for every three books donated for a maximum of three community service hours.

“We think this book drive will be successful because we have faith in the TJ community. Plenty of people have old children books littering bookshelves at home, covered in blankets of dust,” Williams said. “There’s no reason not to donate and help out the community.”