Today you might be working on your Halloween costume, meeting up with friends, or making  preparations for Hurricane Sandy. Add one more thing to your agenda: help make a difference in some small way.

You’ll be joining thousands of people who have pledged to  do the same—today is Make a Difference Day. The folks behind the national day of service have made it easy to participate by providing helpful steps on their website: find a project and register for it, get the word out, and most importantly, do it! You’ll find resources and project ideas for families, teens, teachers and businesses.

At Scholastic, we have a whole arsenal of organizations and individuals who have made helping others their life’s work, especially when it comes to helping children gain access to books. We call them Literacy Champions and the work they do on a national and global level is truly remarkable. From book drives to after school programs to tutoring and mentoring programs, they make it their mission every day to promote literacy in all communities.

If you’re looking for a project to get involved in this weekend or any time, browse our directory of organizations by location. And—get this—you can become a Literacy Champion too. You don’t need to be an official organization to become one. Anyone who helps a child to read is a Lit Champ in our book.

So whether it’s volunteering at your local food bank, joining in on a park clean-up, or helping your little sister spruce up her Halloween costume, take a moment  on Saturday and do something good for someone else.

Photo courtesy of Read Out and Read