ASCENSION PARISH — When Melissa Singletary’s daughter Mackayla was in basic training at Parris Island for the Marines, she had a hip injury that caused her to spend time recovering in the medical rehab unit. With a lot of downtime in this unit, Mackayla needed activities to keep her mind busy and off of the recovery.
She called home asking if her mom could send any books for her to read because there weren’t very many books available at the base.
That’s when Books for Boots was born, Singletary said. She wanted to be able to provide tools to help military recruits get through periods of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and boredom.
“Books got me through some really hard times in my own life,” she said.
She reached out to the leadership at Parris Island to get more information about how to send books for recruits and others to read, including guidelines of what could be accepted.
In its short history, Books for Boots has provided close to 1,000 books to Parris Island. The organization has also helped establish libraries for other military branches’ training sites and provided around 200 movies at each of the locations.
Singletary comes from a military family and is a part of the Blue Star Mothers Baton Rouge chapter, so helping members of the military is important to her.
Books for Boots collects media such as books, movies, puzzles, and also arts and crafts items to send to different military bases for recruits and to local veterans homes, active duty units and more.
The outpouring of book and movie donations has grown exponentially in the less than two years of the organization’s life, allowing Books for Boots to continue meeting needs. Singletary’s storage unit and home are filled up with items to be shipped off after getting new donations almost daily.
In some book and movie donations, children’s books or items are occasionally included. Singletary often brings them to local libraries or donates them to be used in little neighborhood libraries.
However, the organization recently participated in the Bayou Oaks’ Trick or Treat in the Oaks to give out children’s books to kids and raise awareness of the group. Singletary said she brought about 1,500 children’s books from donations that she was able to let the young trick-or-treaters take, many of them new.
“I just hope that the parents recognize that their kids are excited for books, but also, that this is what we do for our military. We provide them free books,” Singletary said.
How you can help Books for Boots
Right now, Books for Boots is only made up of a few volunteers who help to clean and organize donations.
However, the cost of shipping to military bases is something the organization needs more help with. Shipping costs continue to rise, and at the moment, Singletary has five more bases she is trying to ship items to.
Aside from accepting donations of new and gently used books and other media, Singletary said Books for Boots is in need of monetary donations to cover shipping costs. For those interested and able to give, she advised they visit the organization’s website to set up a donation or to get more information.
There are also some upcoming events she hopes for the organization to participate in, including Christmas Stroll in the Park in Gonzales. She said she hopes that they will be able to put on a tournament event in the spring to help raise funds for shipping, too.
To find out more how you can be involved, visit their website, email info@booksforboots.org, or visit their Facebook page.
Books for Boots has received letters of appreciation from different military branches and leadership since it started shipping books. Singletary said these letters have shown her that Books for Boots is making an impact already.
“It made me feel like it’s all worth it.”
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