Book Collection to Help the Community
MVNU’s chapter of the National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NSSLHA) is hosting a book drive through the month of March and into April.
The NSSLHA chapter was established during the Fall 2017 semester.
NSSLHA vice president Royce Lyons, a communication sciences and disorders major, is part of the team putting on the book drive.
“Our goal as an association is to promote literacy within the Mount Vernon community and the book drive is our first step in doing that,” she said.
“As CSD majors, we will be helping people enhance their communication abilities in our future professions. We believe that words have power and one simple way to demonstrate that is through reading,” Lyons said. “Reading can enhance a person’s vocabulary and knowledge bank, thus bettering the person as a whole. We hope to share this information about reading with people in our community.”
The book drive has been in their itinerary since last semester, when “one of my CSD professors expressed the idea of a book drive, and we all agreed that this collection would have the potential to better the Mount Vernon community as a whole.”
Lyons said the NSSLHA is still “deciding exactly what to do with the books that we receive, but a couple of our options include donating books to an organization in the area that could use them or hosting a very cheap book sale with some of the books.”
MVNU’s NSSLHA chapter also hopes to start a monthly “read-aloud” for the children of Mount Vernon using some of the books collected.
“We hope that this book drive allows us to connect with the Mount Vernon community,” she said.
Lyons urges MVNU students to contact her if they have any ideas about where the books might be needed.
“We would really appreciate any ideas because we want to donate them where they will best be used!” she said.
Lyons said she wasn't sure how many books the group might collect in its first effort but was hoping for a good response.
“Our hope is that we receive enough books to begin to help give the gift of reading to the people around us,” she said.
The book drive has boxes set up for collection of materials in the cafeteria lobby, the chapel lobby and at Happy Bean. Club members will accept donations until April 6. They are collecting books for all ages and reading levels.