Woman collects thousands of books for Oklahoma Co. Jail
There a lot of different genres of books and they range from nonfiction to autobiography to self-help. One woman in Oklahoma City is collecting thousands of them with the hope of giving them to jails across the state.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — There a lot of different genres of books and they range from nonfiction to autobiography to self-help. One woman in Oklahoma City is collecting thousands of them with the hope of giving them to jails across the state.
The first one on her list is the Oklahoma County Jail.
"I started out thinking I was just going to collect, you know, 50 or 60 books," said Tonya Parrish, who is collecting books for the OK County Jail.
Parrish said the dream started back in January.
"I had a vision that I believe that everybody needs something to read. And in the jails, there's nothing to read," said Parrish.
Tonya Parrish said she wants the nearly 2,000 books she's collected to go directly to the Oklahoma County Jail to provide hope and dignity.
"Just because they're criminal doesn't make them not a person...not to have a heart," said Parrish.
In the collection of books, Parrish said there are books on religion, fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and more.
Parrish said she originally started buying books from thrift stores.
Then started posting on the Nextdoor app and shortly after, donations came flooding in from friends and strangers.
"It's just it's a blessing to to know that we can---I always want to do something to help others. This is the perfect thing, you know, to to be able to reach out and help others," said Stephen Hilbern, who's a friend of Parrish's and is helping collect books.
Parrish said she started putting the books in her living room and it got so crowded, she moved into her church.
"Almost every single day, someone saying, I've got five books or I've got ten books or I've got 100 books," said Parrish.
Parrish said she hopes to deliver the books around Easter and in the future, has plans to donate to all the jails in the state.