Having my Mom read to me is one of my favorite childhood memories. I specifically remember one book in particular - I don't remember the name of the book, but I do remember it was a Christmas story. She must have read that book to me more than a thousand times, per my request I must add. :) Even in the middle of summer, it was my book of choice because I was slowly learning to read it and there was nothing I wanted more than to learn how to read.
Now that I am the Momma to 2 (soon to be 4!) young children, it's my turn to pass the love of reading to them. My husband and I started reading to them when they were still in the womb. I would check out books from the library to read to my unborn children - that is how much I love reading and want to pass my love of it onto them! Having story-time has not stopped since then and both our boys LOVE being read to or just flipping through books on their own.
I couldn't imagine my childhood or my children's lives without books - it honestly makes me sad to even try and imagine it. So much joy and learning would be gone from our lives. When I heard that Champions for Kids' September SSP (Simple Service Project) was to help get books to children who need them - I was game. Reading is something I hold very close to my heart and knew I needed to help somehow.
Did you know that 61% of low income families have no books for children in their homes? And more than 80% of the preschool and after-school programs serving at-risk children have no books at all? The numbers are very upsetting, as I think 1 child with no books is already 1 too many.
So, Champions for Kids teamed up Nickelodeon this month and came up with the Nickelodeon Big Help Book Drive. The ways we can help are so easy! Whether it's starting up your own book drive amongst friends and collecting children's books to donate or putting together a donation of gently used books you have on hand already - every little bit helps. Even 1 book is going to help that 1 kid who doesn't have a book of his/her own.
We decided to buy a few new books to start off our donation, and since it is Nickelodeon who teamed up with Champions for Kids this month - we headed to Walmart (check out our shopping trip on Google+) where I knew some Nickelodeon books would be! I had heard that there was a new Dora the Explorer book out, Dora the Gymnast, but was unable to find it. Lucky for us, there were other Nickelodeon books on hand!
I even had a helper to find books with me. :)
Not to mention was able to check out some extremely cute Halloween items!
I am very happy with the start of our donation. This week we will be searching for more books to add - some from around our house, our friends/family or perhaps even second-hand stores. I can't wait to see how many books we come up with!
The books we collect will be donated to Sacramento Children's Home. I was looking for local organizations that not only help children, but also NEEDS books. Sacramento Children's Home has a wishlist on their site and books is one of the items listed!!
Make sure to check back next week and see how our donation turned out, I am very excited. :)
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids. #NickCFK #CBias
2 comments:
Looks like you picked a wonderful organization to support!
This is great Jess! Thanks for the reminder that even one book can help. If you change the life of one child, you've done something. But off topic, what did I miss? Soon to be FOUR small children?
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