{"id":30211,"date":"2021-10-28T17:24:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30211"},"modified":"2021-10-28T17:29:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:29:40","slug":"first-responders-spearhead-book-drive-for-area-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/first-responders-spearhead-book-drive-for-area-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"First Responders spearhead book drive for area youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reading is fundamental and a good book can literally change lives \u2013 but, for some youth, putting their hands on a compelling book, a gripping graphic novel, and an entertaining comic book can be a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But York Region Paramedic Services, Central York Fire Services, and the Aurora detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police, along with Welcoming Arms, have joined forces to ensure teens have access to the books and stories that they love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local first responders came together for the cause earlier this year, keeping in mind the impact COVID-19 has had on everyone, regardless of age. They believe that a book can transport people to \u201cwonderous places, push our minds to imagine new things, and learn about topics we have not known before. It can provide an escape and joy in these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few months, the four organizations have been accepting donations of new books, novels, comic books and graphic novels at the local OPP detachment at 100 Bloomington Road West, Fire Station 4-4 on Wellington Street East, Station 4-1 on Gorham Street in Newmarket, and two Newmarket paramedic stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scholastic Canada earlier this month made a significant contribution to their efforts, donating multiple boxes of new books to Welcoming Arms which will be distributed to local youth, teens and tweens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenerally speaking, our teens and tweens, I think, get lost in the mix,\u201d says OPP Sergeant Clayton Brown. \u201cYou hear about toy drives, which are for young kids, but teens and tweens seem to be forgotten about. This is an opportunity to do something for them. Particularly with COVID going on, there are a lot of kids who are struggling out there so it is a way to provide something positive and some kind of escape. I think reading is very powerful and can be very positive and uplifting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a book drive for youth and I think if we don\u2019t say that, you\u2019re going to get your Ken Follets, your Grisham books, and you\u2019re going to get the stuff that\u2019s big sellers, but ideally what we\u2019re looking for is that young adult teen stuff, in a perfect world. Having said that, if [a book store] says \u2018we have all these Top 20 books\u2019 we\u2019re not going to turn it away, but we\u2019re really trying to get that market that seems to be forgotten. If people want to contribute, that is what we\u2019re looking for. With comics being donated, it is kind of an outside-the-box idea, but you have these kids who have been hit with COVID, they don\u2019 t have summer jobs, and are struggling in that way. This is something that they probably wouldn\u2019t do for themselves and that is what we\u2019re looking for here: that little something positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That donation from Scholastic was a \u201cbig something positive\u201d with \u201ca few hundred\u201d books coming in from them in their October donation, but smaller businesses are contributing as well, including R&D Comics based in the St. Andrew\u2019s Village Plaza set to host a live event for the book drive later this fall before they bring the campaign to a close in the first week of December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will give us the opportunity with Welcoming Arms to go and do the deliveries,\u201d says Sergeant Brown. \u201cThe plan is to go until the first week of December to give Welcoming Arms the opportunity to do that last delivery to our youth in the community before we all get really busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would love to know of a kid who taps into a new author, or discovers these comic books and says, \u2018I never get to buy comic books because I don\u2019t get to go out and do that for myself.\u2019 That kind of feedback, I think, makes it all worth while. For me, reading is always worthwhile and having that enthusiasm, that energy to find a new author they keep with them as they grow up is what we want to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to look too far to see the impact of who it is we\u2019re trying to help. Even if you don\u2019t have kids in your life or don\u2019t have youth in your life, this is your opportunity to have that positive impact on someone else\u2019s kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to make an impact, new books can be donated to the OPP Detachment between 8.30 a.m. \u2013 4.30 p.m., Monday to Friday, at either fire station between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and at the York Region Paramedic Services Stations (135 Aspenwood and 45 Harry Walker Parkway, Newmarket) between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading is fundamental and a good book can literally change lives \u2013 but, for some youth, putting their hands on a compelling book, a gripping graphic novel, and an entertaining comic book can be a challenge. But York Region Paramedic Services, Central York Fire Services, and the Aurora detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police, along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2021-10-28-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7Rh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:06:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}