Lissa helped our local church group with a reading push together with the community. Today was the day we wrapped up the book drive. The kids had the day off from school, so we went down to help do some sorting. Our kids are great at being willing to go and volunteer for things like this.
We didn’t get to hear many of the details about how the overall drive went. What we did learn was that they had collected thousands more books than they expected they would. I also felt like they had more volunteers this morning than they were planning would show up.
After we did some book sorting and counting, they put us to work masking off the baseboards. This group of college students had volunteered to do some painting, so we helped get things prepared for them a bit. The kids didn’t have a problem switching from book sorting to masking. They were a little sad that they didn’t get to actually do the painting. I think we’re going to need to do some painting at our house soon. When we do we’ll give them a chance to help out.
The whole point of the program was to try and get kids reading at grade level. I think having a great supply of books will help with that, but it’s not a silver bullet. There are some excellent programs at our local schools where kids that are struggling come in and read with others for 45 minutes a few times a week. I think those programs are very effective. So many wonderful people in our community have generously donated books, time and effort to bring this all together. What a great community we live in.
