A West Island boy is aiming to make a difference in his community, one book at a time.
Benjamin Leiner has collected close to 1,000 children’s books from communities on the West Island.
“Right now, we have 972, I believe, but we have already given away 500,” Leiner said.
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The 12-year-old’s good deed is a part of his bar mitzvah celebration.
All the books collected will be donated to local hospitals and shelters.
After a short social media post, one by one, Leiner and his mother have been gathering novels for the past few weeks.
“We picked up books all over. One day in DDO we were out for a few hours collecting the books,” Leiner said.
Leiner’s mother, Vivian Bejerman, said she was pleasantly surprised by the generosity of donors.
“I think the biggest load was 180 books from one person. Others gave 40 to 50,” Bejerman said.
“They were all really eager to do so. They were so happy to hear there was a way their books were going to get to people who needed them.”
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Some of the children’s books in good condition will be sold at the Nova thrift shop, with the proceeds going toward helping people pay hospital expenses.
“Nova told us they would sell the books and the proceeds would be used to help people with cancer,” Bejerman said.
While collecting and storing the books proved to be quite the task, Leiner said the hard work is quite rewarding.
The mother and son duo will be dropping off the used books at the Montreal Children’s Library and the Sainte-Justine Hospital this weekend.
“It makes me feel really proud. I’m excited that this could go very far, not just in my community. but all over Canada,” Leiner said.