Reading Is Very Important to Mama Luvs Books!
~ Helping Kids in Need to Get Books is Such a Great Cause ~
Champions for Kids does it once again! They have yet another great cause to help kids in need; having community members collect books for kids because not every kid in the community is blessed with the access to good books. I love this wonderful initiative, because as you know I am a former teacher of eight years at the elementary and middle school levels, and I know just how important books are to kids’ learning. Reading is truly the key to a successful education. Instilling the love of reading in kids is something I am extremely passionate about, and giving kids access to books is the first step!
I have worked on many other Champions for Kids (CFK) projects in the past few months, Post cereal for kids to fight hunger, eating healthier with Jennie-O initiative, Bag It Forward to provide kids in need with school supplies, and the Spinbrush Drive to provide kids with dental supplies. All are such wonderful causes, and this one has me just as excited if not more excited to help the kids in our community. My kids are also very excited as well. They LOVE books (we have books all over our house), and when I told them not all kids were able to have books like we do they really wanted to try and help get books for those kids in need.
We thought a great place to find people to help us collect books for kids in the community would be at my daughter’s gym. Education and being actively fit provides kids with a well-rounded experience growing up. Also, members of the gym value education as they have rooms in the gym where kids work on school work together and sit and read while they are on break from working out. Our gym is called Rise Gymnastics and it’s located in Coventry, Rhode Island. My daughter’s coach, Hana Ricna, is a former Olympian who provides quality instruction in the gym. Hana’s son is also preparing to go to the next Olympics so he is in the gym all the time working out and working on his education at the same time.
When the gym heard of the Champions for Kids SIMPLE Service Project #NickCFK: Help Them Read Book Drive we wanted to do to help kids in our community with access to new and gently used books, they were excited to help out! Every donation helps; even just one book is a book a kid did not have before that day. We are hoping to fill our bin we placed at the front counter of the gym! My daughter actually said, “I hope this overflows Mom!” I really hope it does too, because I would like to help as many kids as possible.
My son and I shopped at Walmart to buy materials for our donation bin, as well as some books to start off our book drive! We did this while my daughter was working hard at the gym! When she finished practice she was very excited to see what we put together!
Here are some facts provided by CFK that you might not know:
• Students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math scores. Students with more types of reading materials in the home also demonstrate greater reading proficiency.
• 67% of fourth graders in the U.S. are reading below a Proficient level, according to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress.
• 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.
• Approximately 8.7 million fourth through twelfth grade students struggle with required reading and writing tasks in school. For many adolescent students, ongoing difficulties with reading and writing figure prominently in the decision to drop out of school.
These are great reason to help kids in your community! Did you know it’s easy to organize a book drive yourself? You can do it TODAY! Just follow these simple steps to get started, and think of the difference you can make for kids where you live!
GATHER your friends, family, and co-workers by hosting a Nickelodeon Big Help Book Drive! Ask each person to bring books and magazines that are appropriate for children.
LEARN about the literacy needs of children in your community by asking a teacher or social worker to speak to your group.
GIVE the books and magazine to the teacher or community representative for his or her students. Help children discover the joy of reading and lead happier lives!
LEARN about the literacy needs of children in your community by asking a teacher or social worker to speak to your group.
GIVE the books and magazine to the teacher or community representative for his or her students. Help children discover the joy of reading and lead happier lives!
You can even upload your story on the Champions for Kids site to share with others the difference people can make in their community one person at a time. Be one of the millions to help CFK meet their goal of 20 million people by 2020!
We are SO excited to see the book bin we created fill up with awesome books so we can donate them to kids in need here in Rhode Island. We are thinking about donating them to our local library who seem to be in need of newer books for kids to read. We still need to contact them to see the procedure of donating books there. Donating to the library was my kids idea. They said more kids could read the books then and they would be helping all the kids in our community. Our second choice is to donate to The Sharing Locker in town again. We have made many donations to them in the past, but they are always so welcoming and excited about donations and we know they go directly to kids in need right in our community.
To view our entire shopping trip at Walmart to create a donation bin and purchase some books to start it out, check it out on the Google+ Story we created. We found some great Dora books from Nickelodeon to start us off!
Don’t forget to check out Champions for Kids on their site, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as Nickelodeon on Facebook and Twitter.
Education and sports both take exposure, hard work, and the right materials and access to them! Strive to work your hardest at both and be your best; that’s what we try and teach our kids! Have fun and work hard to accomplish your goals in life!
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
Love putting books into the hands of kids who need them! What a great way to help your kids learn how to give back to the community!
Love to see children with books in their little hands, it’s the gateway to education. Awesome project, and way to teach your how to help others. Nice job!
WOW – loves books too!! Gymnastics is so fun and so good for the kiddos to learn it – great job!!
wow – awesome 🙂 thanks for sharing and I love the pics!
Fabulous! I taught in South Providence for years and each year I gave my class at least 100 books, they needed them a lot more than I did.
Books are such an awesome thing! When I taught school, I spent the last 30 minutes every day reading a book to the kids. They LOVED this, and it fostered a love for both knowledge and reading in them!
What a fabulous project and initiative. I totally agree, reading really helps children. GREAT photos as well.
This is such a great project! Both of my kids love to read and it think every child should know the joy of books. I’m going to clean out their old books and donate them – thanks for the inspiration!
Very awesome project!
Awesome job! Reading is so important and everyone should have the gift of reading in their lives!
I love to read, and can’t imagine not being able to have books. Such a great cause!!
This is such a great way to help your community! It is very important to expose all kids to books!
Way to go! to your daughter, too!
Tiffany
So glad to see you part of this project! If I had more time (and a car) I would have probably set up some donation boxes around our city. Definitely a great idea!
This is a great project!
If we have a birthday party or anything that we need to buy a gift for, we always give books. They’re such a huge part of our life here, and wonderful for family time… When I ask the 5 year old what she wants to give a friend, she says “a book”. I love it.
It makes me sad to know that that many children go without the simplistic thrill of a goodnight story read to them at night.
This is awesome! I remember when I was in school and we had our RIF (Reading is Fun) days. They would let every kid in the school pick out one book to keep. I loved those days!
This is such an awesome program! I enjoyed seeing how happy your kids were to be a part of it!
Kids who see their parents read are more likely to read. Just goes to show you – take some time off from chores to let your kids see you read!:)
I LOVE books too! My children always give books to their friends as gifts – and we donate books to charities, especially during the holidays.
Kristen
Hello, my name is Jenee, and I’m a book-aholic. 🙂 I hope to pass that on to my kids. Actually, my son is 2, so he can’t actually read yet but he pretends to. I think this book drive is a wonderful idea!
I love books! I think reading is such a great thing to do with children at an early age.
What a great initiative! I love the idea of sharing books so every kid has one or more of their own.. We used to have a program for preschoolers in our area where they could get a book each month – all were donated – to help them grow a story library. Sadly it stopped operating – I wish I knew a way to donate like what you have done, but I don’t think that’s in Canada
Reading sparks the imagination, something many kids now a days lack. Thank you for sparking the imagination of kids!
I have always loved and been a big supporter of reading to and with children. This is such a great project to be seeing done. We always donate books to the local library and to the local church where our youngest still attends preschool. They have been read too everyday since each one was born. Kudos to you and keep up the good work.
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That is absolutely fantastic! I love this program! Champions for Kids is amazing! I’m thrilled that you have such a great support from your daughters Gym! It always goes better when you have support! I can’t wait to see that bin overflow!!
this is a great program for kids~
I believe very strongly in getting kids to read, my son became an avid reader from our reading together at night before bed, by the time he finished 5th grade he was almost reading at a college level. Getting them to read is great, but reading with them to make certain they truly understand what they are reading makes a huge difference.
Books are a great way for your mind to grow!! That’s awesome what you are doing!!
I believe kids need books, from the time they are young through their entire life. We learn so much from books!!
I think all children should read books. Makes for a great imagination.
love your site !
I love to read and have always read to my children and now my grandkids! I love to see programs that encourage and enable anyone to read!
Alicia Som amsstar5 (at) yahoo (d0t) com: We love books at our house too! Both of my children have overflowing libraries in their rooms!!!
Love seeing little ones with books to read!
What a fantastic cause to support! I have always been a big reader thanks to my wonderful mother who read to me. And now I love to read to my little ones and encourage them to learn to read as well. Bravo to you!!
I love what you are doing with your site!
I love to read..think the program rocks! Thankfully my 10 yr old is starting to enjoy reading.. There is a program called red books here that we donate to. They leave books in offices for kids to take home! ALYSSON LIBERATORE
This sounds like such a wonderful program. My children and I are avid readers (comes with the territory – my mom is a 5th grade teacher and I am a substitute para). With my job, I see so many kids whose families can’t even provide basic needs, so books are definitely out of the question. I am so glad to hear that there is a program like this!!!
I think books for kids is so important. My grandson is 2. He has favorites already. One is called “I am a Monster Truck” But he also loves all the bisquit books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli. Getting books into the hands of kids that dont have them is great. Every child should be encouraged to read.
I love to read and it is super important to me that my children have the same love of reading. Any program that promotes reading is awesome
reading is so important…so is having active kids gymnastics is great…..active heart..active minds…active bodies…….all healthy kids all the way around…..too much tech. now a days…books open up imagination…and education…….keep up the great work…great cause
I totally agree that kids reading is important. Nowadays people are getting their kids to read at earlier ages and I think that’s good.
You are doing awesome things which sre so beneficial to children!!
That is such a wonderful thing to be doing! Reading is so important. I love that your kids are learning to give at such a young age!
What a great initiative! I love this. Your shots at the gym are amazing too! Thanks for doing this. I absolutely love reading and support all these types of initiatives.
Literacy is so important. I love that you are hosting the book drive through your daughter’s gym. I can’t wait to see the donation and which location you choose!