In a downtown warehouse, thousands of gently used children’s books are sorted and boxed by an army of volunteers. Their goal? To get 100,000 free books distributed monthly to children in need. In their first three months, they’ve passed out 61,718 books.
The Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank is a nonprofit group established by Judy Immerman Payne and Judi Kovach. Since opening in February, they’ve distributed more than 88,000 free, gently used, quality children’s books to Clevelanders. Among the program’s goals: Help teach at-risk new parents the importance of reading to their babies; teach family childcare providers to read with the children in their care; and establish creative youth programming.
In addition, 1,700 Cleveland public school students received books from AARP Experience Corps tutors, which is locally sponsored by Greater Cleveland Volunteers. The program recruits people 50 and older to tutor students.
As part of the program through a partnership with Discover Books, the nation’s second-largest online bookseller, the Kids’ Book Bank is repurposing hundreds of thousands of books that would otherwise end up in a recycling center.
The more books volunteers sort, the more that will get into the hands of kids in need. Interested in volunteering? Visit kidsbookbank.org or call Judy Immerman Payne at 216-417-1803.
