Eighth-Grader Turns An Observation Into A Chance To Help

MICDS eighth-grader Sydney Lefton turned a school field trip to North Side Community School into a charitable project.

“When I first saw the school my impression was I was lucky because they didn’t have any books. It’s really small there; they don’t have a lot of supplies in their classrooms,” Sydney said.

So she decided to start a book drive to help the students. This collection drive for books for kindergarteners through second-graders became Sydney’s project for her bat mitzvah.

“I made flyers and told my friends about it. And I invited everyone who I invited to my bat mitzvah; I sent a list of books.”

She then picked a day and asked everyone to drop off the books at her home.

Apparently Sydney’s efforts worked because she collected around 1,000 books.

After sorting them by grade and level of difficulty, Sydney, who lives in Creve Coeur with her family, took them to the students at the community school.

“My favorite part was seeing the kids again. We gave the books to them and I read a few books to them.”

In addition to being a young philanthropist, Sydney is a dancer and has been since she was two years old. She has been competing for the past six years.

Sydney also plays field hockey and is starting her fourth year as a member of the school’s choir. Academically, her favorite subjects are science and history, particularly U.S. history.

Even though Sydney’s formal bat mitzvah project is complete, she’s already considering what else she could do for North Side.

“Maybe helping with more school supplies or collecting money because the school isn’t big enough for all the grades.”