An area teenager is celebrating his Bar Mitzvah by helping out bookworms across the country.

Fourteen-year-old Daniel Downie sent invitations to his bar mitzvah requesting that his guests donate money to local school libraries and national charities instead of bringing gifts.

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Downie says he wanted some of the money to be used to purchase books from his favorite genre, science fiction.

“I think it’s a great way to promote literacy, I just think it’s really important for kids to have books that their interested in, so that they would want to read more,” Downie said.

The donations Downie raised totaled more than $6,000. More than $1,000 went to the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation.

Gail Rost is the Executive director of the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation. She says she was impressed by the maturity of Downie’s decision.

“For him to choose not only to not receive this money as gift, but then to have the wisdom to have it have a broad effect across our country is pretty extrodinary,” Rost said.

Daniel’s father Stephen Downie says this was a special project for Daniel.

“Daniel had real difficulties reading as he was growing up. It was like pulling teeth to get him to read. But until he found books that he really enjoyed he just blossomed, he just went crazy with it,” Stephen said.

The money Daniel helped raise went to Urbana Middle Schools, Leal Elementary School, and First Book, a national organization that provides disadvantaged children with books.