United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) kicked off the year with a two week long book sale. UNICEF is a club at Solon High School (SHS) which focuses on enhancing the education of its students on the local level instead of the global level which UNICEF worldwide does.

The first book sale, which was held last year, started with the idea from President Sandy Shen. Shen wanted to give SHS students the opportunity to receive Advanced Placement (AP) and other test prep books for a lower cost ($10 or less).

“[Because of the UNICEF book sale] Students have easy access to relatively new AP, ACT and SAT prep books without spending $15 to $20 on a textbook from Barnes & Noble or Amazon,” President Sandy Shen said.

There are still items leftover from the book sale. UNICEF members said they plan to conduct another book sale later this year to finish selling their items.

As far as the funds go, English teacher and UNICEF advisor Laura Fitch said that the funds are donated to UNICEF.

“Funds from fundraising go worldwide to help children in different countries to help the matter of providing fresh water or having a way to get to school,” said Laura Fitch, UNICEF advisor.

The book sale helped align the goals of SHS UNICEF with the goals of UNICEF as a whole.

“The purpose of UNICEF is to better the lives of kids on a local or global level, which in our situation is local and community-based,” Shen said. “ The organization on the global level does things such as [build infrastructure, redirect education and provide necessary needs to children around the world in countries that may need it.] With our set of goals for UNICEF at SHS is to help the students around us with the learning process with the high expectations baited on the kids,” Shen said.

While Shen came up with idea of starting the book sale she received a lot of help doing so.

“Members of UNICEF asked graduating seniors on their way out the door, alumnis and anyone who they could reach to donate any old workbooks for classes or tests they’ve prepared for,” Fitch said.

UNICEF said they took all items with open hands, they also said this was just the beginning of what UNICEF has planned for the year.

“We were hoping to sell a little more than we did but: our big event of the year is UNICEF’s national fundraiser Trick or Treat for UNICEF,” Fitch said.

Although UNICEF provided a variety of test prep books to students, they didn’t display and sell all of the items, but UNICEF members said they were not upset with this.

“Book sale success and awareness success is what we retrieved and that’s what we needed,” Shen said.

Students and staff shall listen up for the morning announcements and follow up on UNICEF upcoming dates for the next book sale and Trick or Treat for UNICEF fundraiser.