READy for Summer Book Campaign Delivers Over 500 Books!

READy for Summer Book Campaign Delivers Over 500 Books!

The end of the school year and the start of the summer can be exciting for many kids. But for some, this transition can be a difficult one and the start of a decline in important academic skills that will continue throughout the summer. This spring the Literacy Council of Frederick County, Frederick County Public Libraries, Blessings in a Backpack and Curious Iguana teamed up to organize the READy for Summer Book Campaign to collect new books for Pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade FCPS students served by Blessings in a Backpack for the start of the summer.

Thanks to the support of generous donors from our community over 500 books were distributed by Blessings in a Backpack just before the school year ended. The books also included information about the FCPL Summer Challenge resources and events, as well as tips for parents on the benefits of reading to their children from the Literacy Council’s new parent outreach program.

Thank you for everyone’s generous support of this new initiative to help combat “summer slide”, the decline that can happen when school is not in session and ensure that more kids are ready to read and succeed when school starts this fall!

Campaign partners, left to right: Jessica El-Zeftawy, Kim Martinez (FCPL) Barbara Dillon (BIAB), Laurie Fisher (Literacy Council), Marlene England (Curious Iguana).
Left to right: Hermine Bernstein, Barbara Dillon (BIAB), Heather Wandell, Kris Nammalwar, Laurie Fisher (Literacy Council), Jessica El-Zeftawy (FCPL), assembling books for distribution.