Matt Slider, currently a Life Scout with Boy Scouts of America Troop 16 chartered by the Federated Church, recently completed his Eagle Scout Project, “Book Extravaganza”, collecting children’s books to donate to the children and families that visit the Sycamore United Methodist Church Food Pantry. Matt organized a book drive with numerous drop-off locations around Sycamore and DeKalb. Matt comments, “My original goal was to collect 900 books. Over the collection period, I was astonished to have collected over 3000 children’s books plus about 1000 adult books!” He planned a community event at the Sycamore United Methodist Church for families to stop in and enjoy Storytime. Popular stories were read to them by students and volunteers dressed up as characters from various children’s books and other community guest readers, including Mayor Ken Mundy. Each child was able to choose a few books to take home with them as their very own. Matt explains, “Books are such a wonderful part of my life. It makes me sad that some children are not able to afford new books, so I wanted to do something that would help every child in our community to have books to read.”
Matt’s project distributed over 1000 books to children in attendance. He also donated 4 boxes of books to ABC Preschool at Sycamore United Methodist Church, 18 boxes of children’s books to Head Start in Sycamore, and many boxes of books to the Federated Church for their annual Book Sale. Matt comments, “I am so thankful to the generosity of our community for their donations!” In addition to book donations, Matt received a donation from the DeKalb County Marines at the Sycamore Veterans Club, plus additional funds from other private donors. Matt was able to present Joel Maurer with the Sycamore United Methodist Church Food Pantry a check for $350 to help with food purchases. Matt hopes this donation will help keep pantry shelves full for a while and hopes his love for reading has been shared with many children and families in his community.
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