Healing Through Books is a youth-led non-profit initiative founded by Tanya Momand.

The Lathrop High junior collected books in an effort to bring comfort and creativity to young patients when a young member of her family was hospitalized in recent years.

She along with her older sister, Metra, who is LHS senior, with support from her teacher, Pamela Crowhurst, coupled with school librarian Jennifer Spellman and library media technician Jeana Penko recently received over 300 books via donations.

This was all for Healing Through Books.

“Our mission is to bring comfort and creativity to young patients through donated books and community engagement,” said Tanya Momand, who generously turned those books over to San Joaquin Hospital in recent weeks.

She started the non-profit initiative last September via social media – Instagram (see: healingthroughbooks_initiative) – where she thanked her 800 followers about a month ago.

“Your kindness, generosity, and belief in the power of books to bring comfort and joy to patients in hospitals mean the world to us,” Momand said in her March 19 post.

Each donated books, she noted, comes with personalized cards tucked inside, offering hand-written words of encouragement and support to help brighten up the day for those young hospitalized patients.

Tanya Momand is hoping to expand the program to include more volunteers to help out another hospital.

“We are also in the process of collecting donations from other schools to then donate to Sutter Health,” she said.

For more information, go to Instagram: healingthroughbooks_initiative.