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Books for Birmingham collected 9500+ books for Birmingham City students
Early school closings have affected young students across Birmingham. Beginning in May, Better Basics began collecting brand new books through their Books for Birmingham campaign. Their mission is to help these local students stay on track for their return back to school to prevent the summer slide.
Teaming up📚 💚
After generous donations flowed in, the Books for Birmingham campaign has taken off. A Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Emergency Relief grant along with individual and corporate donations have raised funds to purchase over 9,500 books–how amazing. Organizations across the city are picking up these books and distributing them to Birmingham students.
Since these students haven’t had access to books at their schools or local libraries in months, it’s important as ever to have great books at home. Agencies including the Boys & Girls Club of Central Alabama, YMCA, Impact Family Counseling, Levite Jewish Community Center, Christ Church Fairfield, and the Birmingham Police Department are helping deliver the books in the greater Birmingham area.
Fresh food + brain food 🍎 🧠
Another plus is Farmers to Families, which provides households with fresh produce, partnered with several of these organizations. As volunteers distributed these boxes of fresh food to neighborhoods, these families received books for their children–or rather, brain food.
In addition to neighborhoods, volunteers from the YWCA visited two domestic violence shelters and the Interfaith Hospitality House, giving out books as well.
“It was incredibly uplifting to see these organizations pick up the books knowing they would soon be in the hands of Birmingham’s children.”
Alisa Boone, Director of Development + Public Relations at Better Basics
So far, these organizations have assisted in giving out generous numbers of books raised through the campaign:
- Boys & Girls Club: 1525 books
- YMCA: 1500 books
- Impact Family Counseling : 32 books
- YWCA: 212 books
- Levite Jewish Community Center: 1800 books
- Birmingham Police Department: 500 books
Lindsey Tillman discussed the importance of books in the lives of young students:
“Here at the Boys & Girls Club we have a young lady in second grade who is really having a hard time with reading. We were trying to come up with a way for her to get caught up but we just didn’t have the resources. Once Better Basics donated nearly a thousand books to us through the Books for Birmingham campaign, we had plenty to choose from to send home with her so she can practice her reading skills.”
Lindsey Tillman, Boys & Girls Club of Central Alabama
Students are being empowered through reading all across the city. 🙌 To find out more about how you can help combat illiteracy through the community, visit betterbasics.org.
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