Umphress, Class of 2024, held a book drive for the teen literacy center at West Preparatory Academy in partnership with The Book Truck and Spread the Word Nevada. The book drive will last from Oct. 10, 2022  until Oct. 31, 2022 with the books sorted following the drive by National English Honors Society members. Umphress described the demographics of West Prep. 

“100% of its students are economically underprivileged. Many of them simply don’t have the resources to develop a love for reading, but we hope to change that.” 

    Umphress shared the generous contribution of Spread the Word Nevada to the book drive. 

    “Spread the Word, which is a great local nonprofit that focuses on literacy for younger children, has a large collection of books for teenagers that they’ve honestly never really done anything with. And they’ve offered to match every book that we get with one that they have within reason.” 

Along with the collaboration with Spread the Word Nevada and The Book Truck, the book drive is also featured at Holy Spirit and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Churches. There is also an option to donate new books or virtually with the novel ideas amazon wishlist. 

A major push factor for the aspiring junior to host this book drive is his own experience, and his battle with axparia speech disorder. 

“Axparia is a complicated disorder and I can’t really do it justice. But pretty much, it causes a person’s train of thought to be slower, meaning that it’s harder for them to think of what to say and harder for them to hold conversations.”

Umphress stated his experience with Axparia, and how reading helped him thrive and earn a life-long love for reading, and how he hopes to share that with others.

“I’m so grateful to have the support of Mr. Radzak and the rest of NEHS leadership through this project, and that’s why I hope you can help out in whatever way you can.” 

For more information, visit novelideas.org