There’s nothing like seeing a community come together, especially when it’s for the benefit of those in need. That’s what senior Jane Boettcher envisioned when she first heard about the floods that devastated Baton Rouge, LA this past summer. She wanted to make a difference in the lives of students whose school libraries were greatly affected by the floods.

The Merry Tutor, a free tutoring non-profit organization Boettcher created three years ago, is partnering with the Alive Center in Naperville to collect books. They plan to send the donated books to Livingston Parish Public Schools, a district with 45 schools and over 26,000 students. Many of those schools underwent repairs, but their libraries were not so easily replaceable.

“Books have always been the way I learned in school, so when I heard about the Baton Rouge schools I knew I wanted to make sure that those schools had the same opportunities,” Boettcher said.

While both The Merry Tutor and the Alive Center are based in Naperville, their reach goes much further than just one suburb. The book donation drive also encourages other communities such as Bolingbrook, Aurora, and more to participate. With so many people available to donate in the surrounding area, Boettcher set a high goal of 10,000 books to collect before Nov. 7, the drive’s last drop off date. So far the book drive has brought in over 7,000 books from across these communities and Boettcher is overwhelmed by the generosity they have received.

“I’ve really appreciated the amount of response we’ve gotten from the community,” Boettcher said. “It’s great to see how many businesses, libraries, and schools contribute. Every single book that comes in counts.”

Books can be dropped off at the Alive Center during business hours well as in book donation boxes set up around many of the surrounding schools up until Monday, Nov. 7. The organization will then give the books directly to the Livingston Parish Public Schools in Louisiana. Boettcher is not only looking forward to seeing the kids receive the books, but also to see what the community was able to accomplish by coming together for a worthy cause.

“I think it would be really fantastic to do something like this every year because I found out that we can do it,” Boettcher said.