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Building a Future, One Book at a Time
Although it was dark and gloomy outside on Sunday afternoon, there was nothing but smiles at the Duke Faculty Club, where volunteers gathered to prepare 1500 books to give to children of low-income families across Durham County.
The Children's Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI), an organization that is housed in the Nicholas School, has banded together with the Head Start Program, the Bring Me A Book Foundation and Cisco Systems to provide brand-spanking-new children's books to over 500 kids throughout Durham County. Sunday, CEHI staff, their family and friends as well as students and anybody else who just wanted to help out gathered to add book-plates and protective wrapping to the books, and package them into backpacks with information for parents about children's health and literacy, as well as other goodies.
CEHI director Marie Lynn Miranda explained to me that this initiative was developed after they stumbled across some studies that indicated children who had access to books at a young age were generally better-equipped when entering the school system. But, she said, during some of their visits to low-income homes during the course of other projects, CEHI staff noticed that most of them didn't have children's books available. So in late December, e-mails started bouncing around discussing what should be done about this. One thing lead to another, which lead to collaborations with Head Start, which lead to finding a corporate sponsor (Cisco Systems), then to finding discounted books (from Bring Me A Book) in both English and Spanish... and within a matter of months, they had reached their goal. On March 10th, they will officially distribute the books to the children, and deliver 27 "Bookcase Libraries" (provided by Cisco Systems) to Head Start classrooms in the area.
But wrapping and packaging 1,500 books in one afternoon is no easy feat. Walking into the room, I was blown away by the colourful stacks of stories lined up on tables, awaiting stickers and name-plates. Favourites like Mother Goose, The Hungry Caterpillar and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom were piled so high I was afraid that some of them might topple and injure one of the many kids who were there to help out. (Luckily, besides a few non-life-threatening papercuts, there were no injuries that I know of). But spirits were high, and people seemed happy to lend a hand, chat with their neighbours, and feel like they were making a difference.
Being an avid reader, I think programs like these are essential in any community. I firmly believe that children should be read to... and not by those electronic Leap-Frog-Nintendo-Book-Whatever-Machines, by actual human beings. And if this program is going to make it easier for children to learn the joy of reading, then I think CEHI deserves a pat on the back for providing families with the right tools to get started.
Kudos, CEHI Team!
