He became a teenager — and marked the occasion by donating thousands of books

On Monday, Brandon Valley teenager Carson Quam turned 13 years old.

And he spent the day packing, loading and donating 2,581 books to REACH Literacy. 

Quam wanted to do something big for his birthday, he said.

“I wanted to do something that would better myself as a person but also to do something that would help the community,” Quam said.

With the help of his mother, Wendy, he set up an event on Facebook at the beginning of June that allowed friends, family and teammates to donate books. 

The goal was to collect 1,000 children’s books. They more than doubled it.

“We ran the event for about three weeks, so our friends were given the opportunity to donate well-loved and used books,” Wendy said. “We also donated Carson’s favorite books from when he was a kid and a couple of brand-new books that were special to us. We then collected them all and donated them to REACH Literacy.”

REACH Literacy is a nonprofit focused on reading acquisition. A few years ago, it opened a bookstore on the south side of the Western Mall that is stocked through donations, and the money earned from each sale goes back to supporting the literacy program.

“We also believe that literacy starts at home, so we give away over 20,000 books every year that go back to the community through teacher grants and other forms of donations,” said Paige Carda, executive director.

REACH usually runs two book drives every year, but because of COVID-19, it wasn’t possible to structure a drive.

“Although we have had good donations, our kids’ books were running very low,” Carda said. “So when Carson said he wanted to run a drive focused on kids’ books, I was very excited. It is going to be a great opportunity for us to restock our supply and provide those books back to the community.”

In addition to the large number of books that were donated, Matt Paulson of MarketBeat heard about Quam’s idea through his father, Ryan, and wanted to financially match the book donation. He wrote a check for $2,581.

“We believe (REACH Literacy’s) efforts are critical to help new Americans thrive in the workplace and in society,” Paulson said. “We are also thrilled to see young people like Carson catch the vision of REACH and support their efforts in a big way.”

At 13, Quam already is connecting to his community. He also spends his time volunteering weekly at Feeding South Dakota, participating in gifted education, playing tennis for Brandon Valley and hockey for the Sioux Falls Flyers and South Dakota River Kings.

“He came up with this idea all on his own, so we just supported him and helped him make it happen,” his mom said. “He loves books and reading, so doing something with books seemed like the perfect fit for him. I know we are biased, but he is an all-around good kid.”