The following story is fully published on the Daily Southtown's website.

Changing schools as a young student left Janellie Flores feeling unmoored, but reading books helped to lift her up.

Now a junior at Bremen High School in Midlothian, Flores wants to help other youngsters enjoy books while providing school supplies they might struggle to afford. A member of her school’s Circle Book Club, Flores organized a school supply and book drive that runs through this week to benefit students at Pilsen Community Academy in Chicago.

Flores, of Midlothian, is getting help from her fellow book club members and club sponsor Andrea Ignelzi, but she’s done most of the legwork for the project herself. She hopes area residents will join students and staff in donating books and school supplies.

She had the idea for the project a few years ago, but the pandemic and her transfer from John Hancock Preparatory School in Chicago to Oak Forest High School and then to Bremen got in the way.

“I would love to do something for an area that is more underprivileged in regards to materials or just students in general who are economically at a disadvantage,” Flores said. “Especially at Bremen, I’ve learned I’m really appreciative of what I have and I think all of us in the Bremen community are blessed with what we have.

“I kind of just realized we’re all here to help each other out and that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

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Bremen High School

Bremen student turns love of reading into book drive for kids in Pilsen