Neha Kulkarni of Plainsboro recently earned the Girl Scout silver award for her “Learn to Read, Read to Learn Book Drive.” A member of Troop 71490 in Plainsboro, her leadership service has benefited both the West Windsor-Plainsboro community and impoverished people internationally.
“It’s one thing to experience the wonder of reading yourself, and another to give it to a child in need,” says Kulkarni, a sophomore at High School North, and a girl scout for more than seven years. Her plans include a career in science.
Her project began in 2009 when she organized, prepared, and ran a book drive at her middle school yielding donations of more than 1,800 books within three weeks. “The amount of books I collected was without a doubt unanticipated — the goal I had originally set seemed farfetched at first, and you could imagine my surprise when I found out that not only did I reach my goal of 1,000 books, but that I had surpassed it.”
Kulkarni recounts the few weeks during which she faced a dilemma with an ultimate happy ending. The book drive was held at the end of the school year and she was not reaching her goal fast enough. She had trouble deciding whether to end the book drive at the 600 mark or keep going. She decided to keep collecting books until the last day of school. “I did indeed have a lot of extra work, but looking in retrospect, it all paid off,” she says.
“I was proud of collecting so many books and surpassing my goal, let alone almost doubling my goal,” Kulkarni says. “I realized, it was indeed worth the extra effort and extra hard work, to achieve my goal, and even to surpass it.” But her project encompassed more than just organizing a book drive.
After organizing and sorting through the books, she teamed up with Books for Third World, an organization that helped to donate her books to underdeveloped countries including many impoverished African and Asian countries. “It was amazing to think that from a small, simple town like Plainsboro, I could be changing, impacting, and influencing the lives of impoverished people around the globe, who have never before had access to books and knowledge that many like me have always taken for granted.”
In addition to making a difference globally, Kulkarni has also contributed to her local community. Shortly after collecting the books, she read to children at the Plainsboro Public Library and planned activities focusing on books in WW-P’s community education programs.
While many strive to better their country or their local community, Kulkarni strived to help the destitute kids of third-world countries, and served as a catalyst for changing the lives of the impoverished lives of kids within poverty-stricken countries.
“This is the kind of project that you can’t help but learn from,” she says. “I’ve learned about issues that trouble our international community including low literacy rates and what education and knowledge bring.” She has also had the benefit of applying skills of leadership, communication, time management, and organization.
“The thing that really sticks with you is that sense of accomplishment — the idea that you’ve had some sort of an impact, which makes all your efforts and endeavors worth it, in the end,” she says. “Without a doubt, I encourage anyone and everyone to get out there and help out in anyway they can, because ultimately even the smallest step makes a difference.”
