Did you know that September 5 is the annual International Day of Charity? This holiday was developed by the United Nations General Assembly back in 2012 to encourage people all over the world to think of and help others. This year, as part of our new summer reading program, we developed the Scholastic Read-a-Palooza Summer Reading Give Back – a way for kids across the United States to help other kids who are without access to books over the summer months.
The Give Back
Throughout the summer, booksellers and libraries held Summer Reading Give Back book drives, where families were encouraged to donate newly purchased or lightly used books. Then, each location passed along the books to a local community group who would distribute them to kids and families in need. In all, a total of 175 places signed up to be book drive partners for this inaugural year. Here are some of the highlights from the summer – and where those donations went!
- From June to August, {pages} bookstore in Manhattan Beach, CA collected 130 pounds of books that were donated to the Richstone Family Center, a non-profit agency dedicated to treating and preventing child abuse and trauma; strengthening and educating families; and preventing violence in families, schools and communities.
- The Gibbonsville Public Library in Gibbonsville, NC collected 500 books during their month long book drive in July. The titles were donated to the Gibbonsville First Baptist Church, who distributed them via local missions to families.
- The Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, PA collected children’s books throughout the month of August for the United Way of Bucks County. 75 books were donated!
- The Dorothee Pike Memorial Library in Lake Preston, SD donated 148 books to the Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter in Brookings, SD.
And if that wasn’t inspiring enough – this year Scholastic teamed up with United Way to distribute corporate donations of up to 200,000 books when kids hit certain minute milestones in the Scholastic Read-a-Palooza Summer Reading Challenge.
How You Can Still Help
Readers have already hit the 25 and 50 million minute milestones, but with only three days left we are 2.5 million away from the third and final milestone of 100 million minutes! At the Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza, summer isn’t over until midnight this Friday, September 6, so make sure your child enters their last minute minutes! (And, even if your child didn't receive an account from a teacher or librarian at the beginning of the school year, you can still help them create an account right now and enter minutes from the ENTIRE summer.)
Those final minutes can help make a BIG difference to kids all over the country, so help us end 2019 strong! Later in September we will have the final results from the Scholastic Read-a-Palooza Summer Reading Challenge, so stay tuned to find out this year's Best in State schools, and the top public libraries and community partner organizations!
Doylestown Bookshop via Facebook
