Teen donates books to health centers

Matthew Bald, 17, grew up in a Catholic family that believed service to others was important. As parishioners at St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Slidell, the Bald family has donated food to the parish’s Good Samaritan (Good Sams) Ministry, a program that helps the needy.

When he joined the Boy Scouts as a child, Bald achieved several service recognitions through the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, including the Parvuli Dei (Little Children of God) emblem through Boy Scout Troop B315 and the Ad Altare Dei (To the Altar of God) emblem. He is currently a member of Scouting’s Venture Crew 315 that meets at Little Oak Middle School in Slidell.

“I’ve always been told to do good and help others,” Bald said.

Books for community

The Northshore High School senior’s latest community project through Venture Crew 315 was donating 1,500 books – filling 25 boxes – Aug. 14 to DePaul Community Health Centers (DCHC). While he hand-delivered the books to DePaul’s center in New Orleans 

books will be distributed to all 10 of the health centers located throughout the metropolitan New Orleans area, he said.

Bald, who loves to read fantasy literature these days, said his mother alerted him to DePaul’s “Reach Out and Read” program, where youngsters receive a free book when they have a check-up.

“I thought it was interesting and decided to make a project for it,” he said, through Venture Crew 315.

Bald and his fellow Venturers collected the books between June 18-July 18. He was surprised, but delighted, that so many books were donated.

“I hope they get the joy of reading that I was able to get with my family reading books,” he said.

The donation supports the centers’ “Read for Your Health” initiative that gives free books to children from infancy to age 6 during pediatric well visits and to older children after each health center visit. This initiative makes “literacy promotion a standard part of primary care” and stimulates “early brain development and builds children’s mental muscles,” according to DePaul literature.

“Our literacy program enriches everyone’s life and imagination, from infants through adult life,” said Daughter of Charity Sister Bonnie Hoffman, DCHC’s vice president for mission integration. “We continue to seek ways to encourage the whole family to read. We thank Matthew and other members of his crew for their generous donation and their enthusiasm for reading.”

This project fulfills the requirements for the Summit Award – the highest youth award in the Boy Scouts’ Venturing program.

Already an Eagle Scout, Bald said he will continue Catholic scouting to the next level, Pius XII, where older scouts explore various life and church-related vocations as they “figure out what God is calling them to be,” Bald said. He is currently thinking he will study veterinary medicine.

cbordelon@clarionherald.org