Our Education Partnerships Manager Amy Franks recently returned from Easter weekend with her family in Hallsboro, North Carolina.
Among her best beloveds there is great-nephew Jairus, 6 years old and proud kindergartener. Here Amy is reading an Easter present she brought with her just for him, the hilarious book, Chicken Chuck.
Chances are you haven’t heard of Hallsboro, but it had its moment of heartbreaking fame this past fall during Hurricane Florence: 39 inches of rain fell there and in the surrounding towns in Columbus and Bladen Counties down east.
Jairus couldn’t go to school for many weeks — and when he finally went back, the bookshelves were nearly empty.
Enter Book Harvest.
In the fall, we shipped books to schools down east to help them re-stock their school libraries.
Now, we are bringing books to students like Jairus and his classmates to take home over the summer and keep forever. While families continue to rebuild and recover, we want to be sure their children are holding on to their learning gains over the summer months.
Every spring since 2012, our incredible supporters have helped Book Harvest bring our Books on Break program to children in our home communities here in central North Carolina. It’s happening again this year — nearly 20,000 elementary school students will be selecting more than 95,000 books to keep their brains nourished over the summer and to keep forever.
And this spring, we are inviting everyone to join us in extending support to young readers like Jairus down east who — more than ever before — yearn for tales of faraway places, close-by adventures, humor, suspense, and brain-tingling excitement over the long weeks of summer.
Let it rain BOOKS for Jairus and his friends this summer! Together, we can transform summer for children in Columbus and Bladen Counties, who have persevered through immense challenges — and we can continue our tradition of book abundance right here at home in the Triangle!
Hear from Amy about why it means so much to her to be bringing books to her hometown this summer: