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TIM CURRAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Mill Park kindergartners started thumbing through their new books even before they got back to the classroom. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim Curran |
Making that special day even more memorable, the nonprofit Children's Book Bank - with special help from Mayor Sam Adams and David Douglas School District Superintendent Don Grotting - gave every Mill Park Elementary kindergartner 10 books of their choice last month.
In addition, every Mill Park student received free books - more than 7,000 were distributed to the 580 students.
Founded in 2008 by Danielle Swope, the Children's Book Bank has the goal of improving literacy skills of economically disadvantaged children in Multnomah County by giving them books to keep and enjoy - lots of them.
“We're the place for families to donate books their kids have outgrown,” Swope said. “We're like the food bank, but for books.” For their ongoing supply of books, Swope said they rely heavily on engaged citizens organizing book drives at their businesses, churches, schools and civic organizations.
Since the 2009-10 school year, the Children's Book Bank has given every child enrolled in the Head Start program - more than 2,500 kids - a book bag with 12-16 books in it.
To date, the four-year-old book bank has distributed more than 250,000 books; 96,000 last year alone Swope noted.
The mayor is a big fan of the program. “I loved reading when I was a kid,” Adams said. Through his office, Adams arranged for a donation of 100,000 books for Portland's kids. “I read in a magazine about how all these books that are in great shape are being thrown away. My staff tracked down who it was, and we got a benevolent donor (Bazillion Books for Kids) to arrange for their collection and transportation.”
Atypical of Children's Book Bank usual pattern of distributing books in June for summer reading, this first day of school give-away is still part of Swopes' larger goal to “saturate Multnomah County” with free books for kids. “We'd like to see if it is better to give books to kids in June or see what happens when they're surrounded by books the whole school year.”
One of the state's largest with more than 10,000 students enrolled annually, literacy is especially important in the outer east Portland school district. According to 2011 district statistics, 80 percent of students receive both free or reduced price breakfast and lunches, with English Language Learners making up 22 percent of all students.
Swope said she would like to have more Spanish language books to give away, but there are ways parent's can support their child's literacy development even if the books are in English. “Alder [Elementary in the Reynolds School District] hosted a literacy night to teach parents who don't speak English how to use any book to help their child get excited about books. Kids love to have the attention of their parents. Taking a book and asking questions about the pictures teaches kids curiosity and that books are fun,” Swope said.
Grotting is tickled to work with the book bank. “It's so great to have them in the district, especially this school,” he said. “This is the highest poverty school; highest second language school. Being able to provide new students books at the earliest stage possible will give them a head start as they move through the program. A lot of times parents would really like to have their students have access, but just economically, especially in these times, they can't afford it.”
The seeds of what Swope does today in Portland were planted in rural and poor North Carolina as a Teach for America teacher plucked fresh from Chicago. “Through my experience as a teacher I made the connection between early literacy and success in school,” she said. “I've seen what it looks like when disadvantaged students read, or don't read well.”
TFA is a nationwide non-profit with the mission of eliminating educational inequity by recruiting high-achieving college graduates and professionals to teach at least two years in low-income communities in the United States.
The first iteration of what became the Portland Children's Book Bank began in Michigan when Swope, a mother of four, found she had accumulated quite the collection of children's books her kids had outgrown. With her TFA experience in mind, she wanted to see the books in the hands of children who would most benefit from their use. Children whose parents she knew were not, because of income inequality, able to afford a variety of books, or books at all. So, rather than donate them to Goodwill or the library, she phoned the nearest Head Start program and arranged a field-trip for her and her children to personally donate the books. “A week later, my phone was ringing off the hook” Swope said, “ 'Are you the book lady? Do you have books for kids? How do I apply for books from your program?' ” It got Swope thinking, if her family had books to give, there must be others. “I knew there was a need, but not a system to get the books off the shelves and in the homes of kids who needed them most.”
After a move to Portland, Swope said she knew when it was time to bring her idea to fruition. “When my youngest entered the second grade,” she said. “I knew I had enough time to get it going here.”
To learn how to conduct a book drive, or for more information about the CBB, call 503-616-3981, email them at info@childrensbookbank.org or visit www.childrensbookbank.org.
If you have books you would like to donate, the book bank has a drop-off site where donated books are sorted, cleaned, repaired and readied for re-use at 1728 N.E. Glisan St.
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