BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

My turn to help

By Lucca Incerpi, age 14 | January 27, 2021

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BOOK DRIVE Lucca Incerpi, an eighth grader at The Briarwood School, held a book drive for students at an elementary school that was affected by Hurricane Laura.

Can you imagine surviving a hurricane that was predicted to wipe out your entire city? Imagine living during a pandemic, surviving a hurricane, and your house and school are destroyed. This is the reality for the kids at Carver Elementary in DeRidder, Louisiana.

This fall I was shown a picture of a school that was impacted by Hurricane Laura. Carver Elementary School had its entire library flooded when the hurricane ripped the roof right off the school. I knew immediately that I wanted to help, because three years ago, the community helped my family.

During Hurricane Harvey, our house was flooded, and we had to evacuate. All we had were the clothes on our backs, and we literally lost everything. We were fortunate enough to have the community help us by donating items we needed. I thought that the kids at Carver Elementary must be feeling the same way I did, but they had their houses and school destroyed. I knew how I wanted to help, and books were an essential item they needed.

I had never started a book drive before, so my mom and I brainstormed ideas of how to get the community involved and give to this small town in Louisiana. I teamed up with Texas Relief Warriors, which is a non-profit that helps communities that have been destroyed by hurricanes. They helped us get the word out on their social media. I posted videos outside of businesses in Houston that allowed me to drop off collection boxes. One of these was my favorite donut shop called Mrs. Donuts. They gave a free donut for everyone who donated a book! Burn Boot Camp and my school, The Briarwood School, also helped me gather books from all of Houston and even New York.

My original goal was to raise 1,000 books. But, because of all of the help, our total number was nearly 5,000. Since we crushed our expectations, we had to rent a U-Haul to fit all the books.It felt amazing to finally deliver the books because I knew that I had helped other people in need, just like other people have helped me.

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