12-Year-Old Girl Donates over 1,300 Books to Children’s Hospital

Charlotte Olson, a 12-year-old girl from New Jersey, spent her Valentine’s Day donating over a thousand books to the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper’s outpatient Voorhees site.

Beginning her book drive campaign before Christmas, the young girl used social media and her family and friends to spread the word and gather as many donated books as possible. She also raised $220 to be spent on even more books.I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

“I’ve always wanted to do something like this and help others; when I was little I’ve always wanted to be on the news. My goal was a thousand books, and I didn’t expect to get over that,” reports NBC.

The books were presented to the hospital’s staff who will distribute them to patients over the year via Cooper’s Reach Out and Read program. It is the largest donation the hospital has ever received.

Dr. Mohammed Jawaad Hussain, a paediatrician at the hospital said: “The more words kids hear before the age of three, the better their language is, better life course. I tell my patients it’s a better chance for getting a college scholarship.”

The Read and Reach Out program was first established in 1998 at the hospital and sees doctors gift books to their patients to help them to read more. The Read and Reach Out program currently helps over 75,000 children with 92 programs across the state.

The donation will no doubt help Charlotte gain her community service award for National American Miss Pre-teen New Jersey 2017, which she is currently part of. She has stated that when she becomes an adult, she would like to be a doctor.