With a focus on literacy Bonita Vista Highs (BVH), Pickwick club offers BVH students a social space to read and discuss various books. The books that Pickwick club members read ranges from children-level books to young adult novels. Moreover, the club serves as a space for students to read with a community of fellow avid readers.
As the Pickwick club’s main goal is to maintain literacy in the BVH community, one of the ways they promote literacy is through an annual book drive. The book drive calls for donations of used books from the BVH community and is aimed to help children in San Diego who are unable to read, by distributing donations across shelters. As the club announced a book drive for the month of April, members of Pickwick club such as club President and junior Capri Molina emphasize the impact of the drive.
“People don’t have the right educational opportunities and we should not only recognize that but help others and ensure everyone has an opportunity [for education] that we [can] give them,” Molina said.
Pickwick club advisor Raymond Chhan explains how the drive collects a wide variety of literature that suits underprivileged children’s circumstances. Even though the underprivileged students are of varied ages, the Pickwick club is able to support them through the donations.
“The idea is to gather as many books as we can to donate them to a council for literacy, they [receive] these books and donate them to students that were previously unhoused,” Chhan said. “The books that we collect are [for] any age.”
The book drive partners with the San Diego Literacy Council, a non-profit organization that also supports and advocates for literacy for all. Molina further explains how the organization is using these donated books to support children in need.
“The San Diego Literacy Council is where we donate the books every year, and their entire goal is [the same as ours],” Molina said. “They collect the books and redistribute them to children in need.”
The critical need to recognize and support literacy is evident as Inside Higher Ed discusses and explain that “According to a 2021 Pew Research survey, roughly a quarter of American adults say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print or in electronic or audio form.” Pickwick club member and sophomore Valentina Castruita explains her thoughts on the decrease of literacy rates in San Diego.
“First off, literacy is decreasing because of technology, and secondly there isn’t enough support when there is a lot of Latinx or Asian [speakers] that don’t speak English and have a difficult education,” Castruita said.
A rising issue Pickwick club has faced with their book drive has been with the willingness of students and staff to donate. The club members hope to continuously emphasize the importance of the book drive and increase the number of donated books.
“The biggest challenge is just having [students] participate [by] giving books because I think they don’t want to [come to school] walking around with books,” Castruita said.
In hopes of reaching more students the Pickwick club has utilized various advertising methods, varying from announcing the drive on the morning announcements, to having flyers around campus. These advertisements for the book drive have significantly increased the amount of books that are donated.
“We are trying to get into different types of media across campus like BVTV to spread the message [of] how important literacy is and how we should help others,” Molina said.
Having donated hundreds of books, Pickwick club is successful in raising awareness and support for the population that cannot read. While their numbers are successful, Pickwick club still strives to raise more to assist the illiterate population in San Diego.
“Giving access to students or to kids that would like [to] read but maybe can’t afford to buy the books [is beneficial]. [The books] are given away for free, so rather than contributing to waste, we can give it to kids that [need] them,” Chhan said.
