Girl Scout Collects 1000+ Books

Farmingdale eighth grader Katherine Pich recently earned her girl scout silver award by collecting hundreds of books for kids in need.

"I wanted to combine doing something that I love, which is reading, along with helping children," Pich said, who collected more than 600 new books for sick children at Cohen Children's Medical Center all through the holiday season.

Residents were asked to donate books for ages infant to preteen, both in English and Spanish, in green drop boxes located in both cafeterias at , the lobby at  and the main office at  The books had to be new since they were being given to children with compromised immune systems.

Pich has been a girl scout for nine years. In addition to organizing the book drive, she made more than 100 bookmarks to give to the children. She donated the books to the hospital through the new charity Friends and Angels: The Tracy Vicere Foundation. 

"Miss Vicere is someone that I know who started this foundation because she is a survivor of childhood cancer herself," Pich said.

Additionally, Pich said many residents asked if she was able to accept gently used books as well. 

"Although I was not able to give those books to the sick children at the hospital, I did take them and find homes for them too," she said. "I gave over 250 books to HELP Suffolk in Bellport, which is a transitional homeless housing facility for families, and the children there were thrilled to receive them."

It didn't stop there. HELP Suffolk could only take 250 due to limited shelf space so she gave the rest, about 500 more books, to the Lighthouse Mission, an outreach program providing those in need with food, clothing and other necessities. 

"The director there said that kids will be so happy to be able to take books home with them to keep," Pich said.

Know of other Farmingdale kids doing great things? Email amandaf@patch.com.