Charities Collaborate to Meet Community Need with Book/Food Drive
Naples, FL 7/9/20 – Books for Collier Kids (BCK), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a steady stream of new books to children in low-income families throughout Collier County, teamed with Boys & Girls Club of Collier County (BGCCC) to provide new age-appropriate children’s books to families in need at their food drives in June. (Images available upon request).
“Each summer, Books for Collier Kids collaborates with other charities to ensure at-risk children don’t lose the reading skills needed to succeed in school and life due to a lack of books in the home,” explains Chair Sallie Williams. “This year, our efforts to prevent ‘summer slide’ took on new urgency as Covid-19 changed the landscape of our community. As a result, we are reimagining the ways we serve Collier County and teamed-up with the Boys & Girls Club to distribute books at their food drives, providing a convenient way for parents to ensure the minds and bodies of their children remain nourished during this challenging time.”
More than 2470 books were distributed along with 700+ meals for families with children at BGCCC locations in Naples and Immokalee. BGCCC has provided 700 meals every Friday for the past three months at each of their locations.
Explains BGCCC Community Engagement Manager Madelyn Lopardo, “With trying times, the books were such a huge hit! Parents were emotional when receiving the books. The kids in the backseats were smiling ear to ear. What an awesome experience we had all because of your generous donation of books.”
The Boys & Girls Club of Collier County offers a wide-array of programs and services designed to ensure all young people, especially those at highest-risk, reach their full potential as productive, responsible, caring citizens. For more information, please visit www.bgccc.com.
Books for Collier Kids provides new books to children in-need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy: access to books. Launched in 2005 as First Book-Collier County, BCK has distributed more than 1.1 million new, high-quality, age-appropriate and personalized books to pre-K, kindergarten, first- and second-grade students in Collier County.
Annually, the charity distributes more than 100,000 books to more than 8,000 boys and girls throughout Collier County. To learn more, please visit www.BooksForCollierKids.org.
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Books for Collier Kids is dedicated to putting a steady stream of new books into the hands of children living in poverty in our community – books for them to read and own. Books in the home are vital to a child’s ability to read and learn. Since 2005, the charity has donated more than 1.1 million books to children in need. To learn more, please call Sallie Williams, Board Chair, at 239-394-4062, or visit www.BooksForCollierKids.org.
