Allie Halter: A chance to make a difference

(Republished with Permission from Society Magazine)

                 When Allie Halter joined “The 200 Club,” a junior ambassador program established by Promising Pages, you could say that she found her calling. The club includes young people, even seven-year-olds, who have collected at least 200 books for redistribution, whether through a church, a neighborhood or an alternate creative method.

                Halter exceeded its expectations: She collected 4,100 books. Three SUVs were stuffed to the brim to transport them to their destinations.         

Madeline Huff, Kristina Cruise and Allie Halter

                “It sounds like so many books but I didn’t realize how many I had until I was going back and counting them because I was totally consumed by the entire experience.” Said Halter, 17. The Myers Park High School senior started her collection strategy through social media, sending a mass Facebook message to more than 100 acquaintances in Charlotte, who donated books.

                Then , she said, “ what ended up happening, thankfully, is that people who received my Facebook  message told other people so I received calls from friends of friends. “ they, as well as members of her church and youth group, added to the pile from the middle of June through the middle of August. “I was so excited,” she said. 

                More exciting was her shift in inspiration. During orientation for their internship with Promising Pages, Halter and the other students were told that, if they could total 300 points’ worth of activities from Facebook posts garnering community support to event attendance, Cruise would personally write them recommendation letters for college.

               “I thought I knew what I was getting myself into before I walked in that first day,” Halter said. She decided point accumulation through support was the route she would take and that was how she collected books during the first summer weeks.

                Then she started to attend Magic Book Parties at elementary schools and Crisis Assistance. “The second I started going to the events I automatically fell in love with it and every single aspect of the organization,” she said. She loved to watch the children gather their books, especially at follow-up parties carrying around stacks of their own choosing.

                “You have one chance to make a difference in these kids’ lives,” she said.  “To see them light up just makes all of it so worth it.”