The National English Honor Society, a group devoted to the celebration and development of the English language, had a book drive recently, with donated books going to a local school, Cunningham Elementary, and a Vietnamese community school, Ho Chi Minh Elementary. A number of Langley’s third period classes participated, with hundreds of books donated towards the cause.

“We did a lot of publicizing through class Twitter’s, we sent stuff out to the Langley e-news, and we broadcast stuff through the morning announcements,” said Kaitlyn O’Conor, a primary organizer of the event. But out of all the groups that participated, no one was able to come even remotely close to Mrs. Jewell’s class.

“The group that probably deserves our greatest, not just credit, but I’d say great respect are the students in Mrs. Jewell’s period three’s class who took the challenge and went out and solicited books from their friends and family and neighbors for our cause,” said Mrs. Chern, organizer of the book drive, and head of the English Honor Society. Mrs. Jewell’s class donated over 1,000 books to the drive, bringing the total to over 3,000 books.

When questioned how her class was able to accomplish such an amazing accomplishment, Mrs. Jewell told me the strategy she gave her class was“to go out into your neighborhood and find houses with middle students, and if you can get them to donate, we’ll be able to win.”

Mrs. Jewell went on to say that one of the most successful aspects of the effort was the group’s teamwork and ability to come together. “There was a lot of positive feedback. Out of the 28 students, 22 participated,” said Mrs. Jewell. It was just a lot of fun, I mean it was so much fun, when we hit the 600 mark, I told the students ‘guys, I think we won,  but we can win by more, we can win definitively’, and then it just became challenging ourselves and being amused. When we got close to the 1,000 mark, I was just gobsmacked. My third period students are amazing, and they’re incredibly good natured.”

“Mrs. Jewell’s class went above and beyond, and raised more books than we ever could have imagined, and NEHS is extremely grateful for their dedication and support,” said Erica Yap, treasurer of NEHS. “Now that AP Exams are over, members will be able to sort the books in order to earn their hours as members of the society.”

Once the books are distributed, children locally and across the globe will be able to appreciate the joys of reading, with Vietnamese children being able to learn English, a powerful skill in an increasingly globalizing world. Education, a service many of us take for granted, is the true goal of the book drive, and the National English Honor Society, along with the ability to give that gift to the next generation.