Something good has happened to help instill the love of reading in children across America.
Orion Jean, a sixth-grader who lives in Mansfield, has officially reached his goal of collecting 500,000 books for kids in need. And he did it in three months!
It’s all part of his Race to Kindness campaign where he has collected hundreds of toys for kids at North Texas hospitals, collected 100,000 meals for people in need during the pandemic and so much more.
When NBC 5 talked to Jean back in June, he told us this is all about helping the future.
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“We are the next generation and we have to know how to lead,” Jean said. “There are a lot of bad things happening in the world and there are a lot of problems. It’s kind of difficult for me to look around and see all of this stuff happening and not wanting to be able to do something about it.”
To reach his goal, he hosted several book drops and received big donations from so many. The latest donation, and the largest, was thanks to ThriftBooks.
In a statement about the donation, the online book retailer wrote:
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"ThriftBooks, the world’s largest independent online seller of used books, is proud to contribute over 300,000 books to support Orion Jean’s Race to Kindness Book Drive. Orion’s mission to collect and distribute 500,000 books to inspire kids to become lifelong readers is 100% aligned with the ThriftBooks mission to do the same by getting books into the hands and homes of children everywhere."
The books will be distributed across the country to kids and schools where new books aren’t always easy to come by.
“Studies show that kids who have books in their home do better than kids without books. So, I know that books have changed my life and changed the lives of so many other kids around the world,” Jean said.
