Mackenzie Bearup was only 12 years old when a strange, intense pain struck her knee while she was rocking out to “American Idol.” Several misdiagnoses later, she learned that she had Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Basically, RSD causes nerves and blood vessels in one the affected area to believe the area is injured, even when it’s not. The pain is a lot for anyone to deal with – according to Mackenzie, “the kind of pain I feel is very hard to describe. It will explode at random times [and] when something touches it, it’s like I’m getting stabbed multiple times.
There’s no cure and Bearup was bed ridden for long chunks of time, dealing with the pain. The only thing that helped was reading. In books, she could escape her pain.
Then Mackenzie’s pediatrician told her about the Murphy-Harpst Children’s Center in Cedartown, Georgia – a nearby residential treatment center for severely abused children. The center had just built a library, and Mackenzie decided she wanted to help. ”I think any child being in horrible, intense pain like this, they need something. And something I knew that helped me was books,” she said.
She set a goal, donate 300 books. ”I asked everyone I knew to donate books, and then I asked them to tell their friends,” said Mackenzie. She also put flyers in mailboxes, placed newspaper ads and launched a Web site. Soon she had not 300 books but 3,000.
Once the Murphy-Harpst library was full, Mackenzie started sending books to young people in homeless shelters, children’s homes and treatment centers. Thanks to this courageous young women, these kids have a place to escape a life that is far harsher than they deserve. And something to improve their lives in the real world. As Mackenzie points out, “Reading isn’t just an escape, you can learn a lot too, and that’s very important for homeless and abused children. Staying in high school is one of the things that will help you most in life, to be able to get a job and be able to support yourself.”
Since 2007, Mackenzie has donated more than 38,000 books to children in six states. In 2009 she officially launched her nonprofit, Sheltering Books, with her mom’s help. ”If one homeless or abused child finds a love of reading through books that I’ve given them, then that will help them in school and just turn their life around entirely,” she said. ”I think that reading can do that for someone.”
If you want to help Mackenzie, check out the Sheltering Books Web site.
