'Imagine with Keira,' Visalia teen collects over 10,000 books for Visalia Unified classrooms
It took just one week for Keira Bixler to rally Visalia Unified students to collect more than 10,000 books for the district’s family and community services program.
“It's great to be able to work with all these amazing people and make this happen,” Bixler said. “Of course, in a week I never anticipated that there would be this many (books).”
Schools competed against each other to see which campus could donate the most books. The grade level and schools that won received tickets to a Visalia Rawhide game and meal vouchers from Valley Strong Credit Union.
Bixler also had the support of Save Mart, which supplied the boxes to store the books. Each box had around 150 to 200 books, each stamped with “Imagine with Keira."
Bixler and her family stored thousands of books in their garage as they waited for donation drop-off day.
Some of the Visalia Unified School District's family and community resource center staff will sort through the collection, which will take a few weeks.
"We will get these organized so we can get them out because we have elementary summer school going on," said Jim Sullivan, Family and Community Services administrator. "We won't go through all of them, but at least be able to sort and get some out there already."
This is just one of a handful of donation drives Bixler has organized in Tulare County. Earlier this year, she ran a backpack drive with the school district but ran out of backpacks because of the high demand.
After handing out their supply of backpacks, Bixler chose to expand the operation in order to ensure each student who didn’t receive a backpack the first time around had a second opportunity.
She has been organizing book drives for several years. Her efforts helped double the size of Kaweah Delta's Medical Center's library. She also started her own interactive reading program, hosted by the ImagineU Children's Museum.
In late February, Bixler was crowned 2022 Miss Tulare County's Outstanding Teen at ImagineU.
Kathi Artis, Miss Tulare County Organization executive director, surprised Bixler, who thought she was going to the museum for a photo shoot. Instead, Bixler was greeted by family members, friends, teachers, community members, and even her dance team.
She was awarded $1,500 in scholarships following the ceremony, and Amy Shuklian, on behalf of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, awarded Bixler with a certificate of recognition.
Miss California's Outstanding Teen's preliminary competition is at 6 p.m. on June 22.
Lauren Jennings covers education and news for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow her on Twitter @lolojennings. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 'Imagine with Keira,' Visalia teen collects over 10,000 books for Visalia Unified classrooms
