TURNING THE PAGE ON ILLITERACY

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honorees Sumedha Rao and Sanvi Pandey. Read their story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Sumedha Rao and Sanvi Pandey loved to read as children, and they want everyone to have that opportunity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo was looking to do something positive for the community. Both high school students, they got the idea to start small. They began delivering books to children in hospitals and pediatric therapy centers. But with each book they delivered, Sumedha and Sanvi realized they possessed a world full of potential change.

Sumedha and Sanvi started gathering books off their own shelves, and even requested ones their friends, family and neighbors no longer wanted. They established The Bookmark Project, a student-led literacy initiative focused on expanding access to books for children in under-resourced communities. Along with a team of volunteers recruited from their classmates, the group continued to expand by leading book drives and partnering with schools, hospitals, therapy centers and libraries. Since then, they launched new chapters in Michigan and North Carolina and have collected and donated more than 41,500 books that have been sent as far as India and Uganda. The team’s international expansion is particularly exciting, as it has allowed The Bookmark Project to distribute books to children in a rural Indian village and support the construction of an Indian library so they can have their own space to learn and grow.

Sumedha and Sanvi’s work to encourage literacy across the globe exploded into a worldwide phenomenon. They’ve connected with community leaders and have been invited to speak about the importance of youth-led service. Still, the duo wants to make it clear that there’s nothing wrong with starting small and asking for help along the way. What began as a mission to help others find a bright light during a period of darkness evolved into a groundbreaking mission to comfort, educate and inspire children through the power of words. That journey is available to anyone ready to explore the world of volunteerism.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

Sumedha: We wanted to do something for the community. We know this was definitely a difficult time for a lot of people, especially with their mental health, and a lot of children were in the hospital. We wanted to do something small, so we collected books from our shelves and from our neighbors’ shelves and then donated them to a local hospital. We were seeing how much of an impact books can have on children, even though it was just a couple of books we donated. It just made it so meaningful to us. That’s why we continued growing it even further.

What inspires you to volunteer?

Sanvi: I think it’s very rewarding once you get into it. You meet a lot of different people and see a lot of different experiences that you aren’t exposed to in any other format. It also teaches you a lot about yourself, getting to help other people. It teaches you a lot about what’s important to you and what you value, which I think is just important to know and apply throughout your life. I think it makes you a better person because of what you learn, and by getting to interact with all different kinds of people.

Tell us about your volunteer role with The Bookmark Project?

Sumedha: Because we co-founded it at the beginning, it was just the two of us. We led a lot of the hands-on things, such as going to collect the books and then packing them, especially when it was smaller donations. Now we do a lot more leading of everyone else. We have volunteers who come in to help us with our book packing events. After we contact different libraries, bookstores and people willing to donate from schools or other places, we gather all those books, and then we contact places that want these books for donations. Once we get an idea of what they want, we get volunteers to come in to help us organize these books and get them ready to be shipped out. Now we have our team, and we have our roles divided within our team. We have different roles, like marketing, communications and just keeping track of the work and goals.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

Sanvi: Within the last couple of months to a year, we’ve started doing a couple of international donations to India and Africa. We would like to continue expanding that. It’s a little more difficult for us to go abroad, of course, because it’s expensive, but that’s something we want to expand and see how we can effectively do. We also want to continue to expand throughout the United States. We’ve started building chapters in Michigan and Texas, so perhaps expanding to different states and identifying areas that have fewer resources that we could support.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

Sumedha: One thing that is definitely rewarding is when we get to work with the little kids. We’ve actually gone into different Montessori schools and talked to these kids, and they have also done book drives for us. Just being there and seeing how much they want to help is so rewarding. Not only the Montessori schools, but also the kids to whom we donate the books. We’ve gotten a lot of videos from Africa and India, and just seeing how much those books mean to them is definitely very rewarding.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

Sanvi: We didn’t realize how big and important our mission would eventually become. But we’ve learned a lot about just the importance of literacy, especially at a young age. I think it’s something that is not as considered, especially in more fortunate areas, but having books at a young age really impacts a child’s trajectory and how well they do in school. It can put certain children at a disadvantage compared to their peers, and I feel like we didn’t even realize that before we started.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

Sanvi: I think it teaches you a lot about yourself. I think you learn about what you value, and also, it’s just very meaningful to do something that is bigger than yourself. You learn a lot about your community, and you build a lot of valuable relationships with people that you wouldn’t have relationships with otherwise.
Sumedha: It’s also whatever is important to you. Being involved in volunteering, in that sense, can really broaden your perspectives and introduce you to new things that you wouldn’t have seen before.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

Sumedha: It’s always okay to just start small. Nobody really knows what they’re doing once they start. But just getting that initial start and knowing that it’s okay to ask others for help. Nobody finds it annoying when you ask for help. I think just starting small and asking for help is definitely one of the main things.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Sumedha and Sanvi? Find local volunteer opportunities.