I recently had the honor of working with Fletcher Roberts, a distinguished young man who came up with a fabulous project to earn his Eagle Scout badge with the Boy Scouts of America. Fletcher raised money locally to fund building shelves (and filling them with books!) for the local Birmingham, Alabama, YWCA homeless shelter.

Through daily correspondence with Fletcher and his mother, it was great to be a part of the project, having gotten photos of Fletcher and friends ordering the books on BetterWorld.com, the Better World Books boxes arriving, the building of the shelves with his friends, and the final evening of Fletcher being awarded his Eagle Scout badge. He is truly a wonderful person. During our conversations, his mother and I commiserated on how great it will be in 20 years when Fletcher comes home and still sees the difference he made in the lives of the people using the shelter and providing books for them to enjoy, bettering their lives, and learning from them in the process.

During the project, Fletcher was able to raise enough funding to supply over 700 books (751 to be exact) from the inventory of Better World Books for the YWCA homeless shelter. He went to great lengths to select books from the Alabama City Schools Reading List, which are age appropriate, and subject-relevant to the families using the shelter.

Now Fletcher is looking into colleges and furthering his education. This is a young man who will go far in life, and has a deep sense of caring for and improving the lives of others. I have made some friends in Alabama through this project, and will stay in touch with them, eagerly awaiting word on Fletcher’s next adventure.

–Jill Galloway