By Anna Skinner
Melanie Martinez has always had a passion for reading and community service, and she decided to combine the two by holding a book drive at the high school and also applying for a grant through Youth as Resources, a local award for the youth with ideas of helping to improve the community.
Martinez received a grant for $590 from YAR, which will go toward purchasing bookshelves to house the 4,000 books donated through the book drive. Half of the books were donated by students and staff with the other half coming from Half Priced Books in Indianapolis. The shelves will be placed at Open Doors Food Pantry.
“I just felt I really liked reading as a kid and education is important to me and I love being at school and learning,” she said. “I felt like reading at a young age is really important for that level of learning and I felt bad about the kids who didn’t have those resources. Low income families coming to the pantries can see the books and bring them home. Kids can take books right off the shelves while parents are looking for food.”
Martinez collected adult and kid books during her book drive.
“I would like to help people,” Martinez said of her future career plans. “I’m really interested in science and math, so I might go into research. I tutor at the high school every Wednesday and it’s fun to get those kids one-on-one help and this project is allowing me to use that as volunteer work and community service.”
Martinez said she hopes to receive the money in the next week and is already bringing boxes full of books to Open Doors. In addition to her book drive that was held in the fall, Martinez wants to hold a spring cleaning drive for cleaning supplies to provide to food pantries.
