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Nov 04
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Usborne Books & More Virtual Book Fair

By What's Happening

Hello Friends and Supporters,

Our Virtual Book Fair with Usborne Books & More benefitting Book Drive for Kids is happening again and it starts today!

When you purchase books through Usborne Books & More, not only are you purchasing quality books for children, but 50% of your retail purchase helps our organization to earn free books to use in our free book fairs for kids in underserved areas.  Whether you purchase books for your family and friends or you purchase books to donate, Book Drive for Kids will earn additional books for free.

How does this work? Since it’s a Virtual Book Fair, you shop online.

  1. Use this link to access the website: www.williamsbookreads.com.
  2. Click the “Shop” button. If prompted, be sure to select the “Book Drive 4 Kids 2022” event so that we will get credit for your purchase.
  3. Shop for books, puzzles, or activities. Add your selections to the cart.
  4. Add your customer information and shipping information to your cart
  5. Add your payment

That’s it! If you choose to do so, you may ship your donated books directly to us at Book Drive for Kids, Attention: Michelle Cook, 1301 Water’s Ridge, Lewisville, TX 75057

Due to shipping inflation, Usborne Books & More recently changed their shipping rates. The good news is that the more you purchase, the lower your shipping rate. Please view the details below:

If you missed participating last year, please consider shopping this week. Shop early for the holidays while benefiting Book Drive for Kids! We are grateful for your support!

Sep 06
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Bringing New Stories to “Book Deserts”

By What's Happening One Comment

When Book Drive for Kids learned that over 60% of Dallas and Tarrant county children live in “child care deserts”, we knew we had to help.

What is a “child care desert?” It is particular zip codes and/or counties where there are not enough seats at high-quality child care centers for the number of children of working parents. Parents are forced to make the difficult decision of not working outside the home or utilizing an inferior child care situation. This results in children ill-prepared for kindergarten and/or families suffering economic hardship because a parent can’t work or get further training. Here is where Child Care Group comes alongside these families by providing subsidized child care and mentoring in creating rich learning environments in the home.

Since 2020, Book Drive for Kids has partnered with Child Care Group by providing books to their families and child care centers. The cost of quality children’s books is expensive. Replacing lost or damaged books increases operating costs at a child care center and takes valuable funds away from other costs, like teacher wages.

We appreciate the families of Primrose Schools in Denton county who regularly donate pre-school books, both new and gently-used, for us to share with other preschool children, like those at Child Care Group, Lillie L Jackson Early Childhood Center in Lewisville, and the Ann Widdle Preschool and Gonzalez Preschool in Denton.

With your financial support, we can continue to support these families and child care centers with additional books to bolster learning for our most vulnerable assets – the young children of North Texas.

#BookDriveforKids
#ReadingRocks
#LiteracyMatters
#BetterTogether
#GiveABookChangeALife

Feb 24
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Muchas Gracias!!

By What's Happening No Comments

 

Book Drive for Kids returned to Life School-Oak Cliff with a free book fair. Our volunteers were so excited because this was one of the first campuses we held an event at back in 2017! COVID kept us out last year, but we returned!!!

One of the blessings of Regions Bank’s and Reading is Fundamental’s sponsorship of this event is the beautiful bi-lingual books we are able to offer. Additionally, Frogstreet Press donated readers from their pre-school curriculum written in Spanish. Each student took home two books, including fairy tales, Pete the Cat, National Geographic Animal books, and more that tell fun and engaging stories in both English and Spanish.

Ms. Green shared these comments,

“Good afternoon. I wanted to take a second to tell you how incredibly thankful my class and I are for our free books! My kindergarten class is a bilingual class of 8 boys and 10 girls. Books that are in Spanish print are hard to come by. You gave each of my students a free book and it is in Spanish Print! Please thank Regions Bank and your other sponsors know that Casa Green loves to read and we send a huge THANK YOU!”

Isabel Green
Bilingual Kindergarten
Life School Oak Cliff

Thank you to our special donors at Regions Bank and Frogstreet Press as well as our volunteers who shared their day to create this fun and educational opportunity available to our community! To find out how you can Change A Life With A Book, visit our website.

 

 

Nov 04
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Kickoff ‘20-’21

By General, What's Happening

2020 is a year for the record books for Book Drive for Kids! Not just because we have survived a world-wide pandemic but because in the middle of COVID-19, we set all kinds of records. 

  • 9,660 kids were able to select a book of their choice
  • 10,950 books were given away to children and classroom libraries
  • 23 Free Bookfairs were held across the state of Texas
  • $10,000 gift (the biggest ever received!) from Regions Bank
  • 26 volunteers accomplished all of these mile markers

No doubt, 2020 has been one of the most turbulent years in recent history, yet when you read the Community Impact Statement of Book Drive for Kids, we know that the spirit to care for one another is alive and well! Perhaps now, more than ever, we appreciate the simple things, like a book, a friend, and a smile.  These are the very “things” that make Book Drive for Kids so special. We are a community of friends sharing a book and a smile in hopes of making new friends!

On Friday, October 16, donors, volunteers, and guests joined together to celebrate the accomplishments of this past year and look forward to expanding our initiatives in Denton County. We celebrated Regions Bank’s gift of $10,000, which provided the matching portion of a grant from Reading is Fundamental, opening up almost 6,000 NEW books for our free book fairs. This gift provides almost full funding to our base operations in Dallas county.   

The Challenge to our Denton County friends 

In the cities of Denton, Lewisville, and Flower Mound, there are eleven schools whose student population is 70% economically disadvantaged.  Additionally, 30-50% of the students in several of these schools have not yet passed the English proficiency test. These children are our neighbors. We shop at Walmart and Kroger together. Yet, unlike many Denton county homes, these children have few, if any, books in their homes. For these families, the purchase of a book is a luxury purchase. How can they build the vocabulary they need to achieve success at school when they lack books at home?

Book Drive for Kids is here to help overcome these obstacles. YOU can play an integral part!

We are seeking donations of new and gently-used children’s books as well as monetary donations so that we can bring free book fairs to each and every one of these schools.

At the Kickoff ‘20-’21, our generous donors fully funded a free bookfair for Central Elementary to be held this Spring. Other donors gifted books so Lillie Jackson’s Early Childhood Center could hold their fair.  That’s two schools down, 9 more to go.

How can you get involved?

When each of us does our part, together we can spared hope, love, and laughter to the children in our community!

Oct 22
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Belk’s Charity Sale

By Support, What's Happening No Comments

When you purchase a Belk’s Charity Ticket for a $5 donation to Book Drive for Kids, you can spend $1 twice!

How?

Your donation of $5 for a Belk’s Charity Sale ticket goes directly to purchasing books for our free book fairs. Then on November 9th, Belk will redeem that ticket for $5 off any purchase during the Belk’s Charity Sale at any Belk stores. During this sale, they offer some of their best prices all year long, many even better than Black Friday sales.
Belk Charity Sale tickets are available NOW with any $5 donation on our website or from a Book Drive for Kids Ambassador. We will be in-store selling tickets at the Flower Mound location at 5801 Long Prairie Road on the following dates:

Sunday, October 27 from 2-4pm
Saturday, November 2 from noon – 2pm
Saturday, November 9 from 10-11am

Plan a group shopping trip by gifting some of your favorite people with a ticket and spending them together on November 9th at Belk’s. What a great way to start your Christmas shopping and spend time together while benefitting the 8,000 children who will browse the book tables at a Book Drive for Kids’ free book fair this year.

YOU make it all possible!

May 22
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Book Drive for Kids Used Book Sale – Saturday, June 1st from 9am-2pm

By What's Happening No Comments

We have completed the 2018-19 year with a record number of books given away and donations!
Some books have been donated that are not appropriate for Book Drive for Kids Free Book Fairs. These include adult books, textbooks, books with wear and tear or writing in them that can not be covered. Teachers at Title One or ResponsiveEd schools can get 5 free books with their teacher ID.

Support a great cause! Come shop Book Drive for Kids Used Book Sale on Saturday, June 1st, 9am to 2pm in the meeting space adjoining Deja Brew Coffee Shop in Lewisville.

Apr 17
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We need your help! You can make a double impact!

By Support, What's Happening

From now until May 10th, your donation will be matched by Reading is Fundamental (RIF), a national literacy organization.

Here’s the story: Book Drive for Kids applied for a Book Ownership Matching Grant offered by RIF. This is a program where Book Drive for Kids contributes a designated amount of money and RIF matches that amount so that Book Drive for Kids can purchase new books at discounted prices from RIF’s online store..

With a $5000 donation from Regions Bank, we applied for RIF to match that $5000. This would allow us to acquire $10,0000 worth of books. That’s 3,333 new books which is literally half the inventory we need for the 2019-20 free book fairs to which we have already committed. You can imagine our surprise when we opened our Award Letter and found they actually awarded us $9000! This will enable us to purchase $18,000 worth of books – that’s 6,000 new books!

Here’s where we need your help!

We need to raise the extra $4,000.

A generous donor has already started this fund with a $1000 donation.
Can you help us raise the remaining amount?
Do you know other donors or corporations that would like to sponsor a free book fair?
These sponsorships range from $500-$2500. All donations are tax deductible.

We are so excited about this amazing opportunity! It is available because of YOU, our amazing volunteers and donors.
Your donation will be matched (up to $4000) until May 10th.

Donate Today!
Mar 22
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Lakeland Elementary School Students Celebrate Read Across America with Book Drive for Kids

By What's Happening No Comments

LEWISVILLE, Texas – March 21, 2019 – In early March, all across the country schools celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday with a campaign to promote reading called Read Across America. Children and adults alike are familiar with Dr. Seuss (real name Theodor Seuss Geisel), who revolutionized children’s books by creating fun characters like The Cat in the Hat and zany experiences like eating Green Eggs and Ham.

On Friday, March 1, Book Drive for Kids, a local non-profit organization, joined the festivities at Lakeland Elementary School in Lewisville, Texas. With a generous sponsorship from Independent Bank, Book Drive for Kids hosted a free book fair for all 800 students. “At Book Drive for Kids, our mission is to create enthusiasm for reading and we do that by providing books that children can take home and call their own,”  says Michelle Cook, co-founder of Book Drive for Kids. At these free book fairs, every student chooses a book from a variety of genres. “The kids are so excited to get the books. It is a great way to spend the day,” remarks Lakeland librarian DeVona Williams.

“When we heard about this celebration, we were excited to support Lakeland Elementary School,” says Chuck Clay of Independent Bank. Book Drive for Kids is a grassroots organization run by volunteers and donations from the community. “It was so much fun!” exclaims Dottie Francis of Independent Bank. “We had an amazing time!” adds Rebekah Carpus, who volunteered along with her college-aged daughters Mikayla and Abigail.

Book Drive for Kids offers free book fairs for economically disadvantaged children in the DFW area. It was started two years ago by Flower Mound residents, Nicol Klingenstein and Michelle Cook.  “When we learned that there were families with few if any, children’s books in their homes, we knew we had to do something about it. Reading with our own children had a profound impact on them as well as ourselves. Every child, regardless of their zip code, deserves to ignite their imagination through books.” If you would like to know more about Book Drive for Kids, please visit the website or Facebook page.

Oct 01
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Ready, Set, Go!

By What's Happening No Comments

We are off to our first Free Book Fair for the 2018-19 year! A more fitting location could not be found! We began at Founder’s Classical Academy of Mesquite – the location of our very first Free Book Fair back in 2016. We were welcomed with big smiles, hugs, and eyes dancing with anticipation! Most of these students can tell you the book they chose at last year’s Free Book Fair. Their appreciation and excitement radiates from their shining faces.

The event has grown with the school. This year over 500 students browsed the book fair tables in two separate locations – one for K-6th graders and one for grades 7-11. Special thanks to Melanie Bromfield and Tara Anderson from sister school, Founder’s Classical Academy of Lewisville and Kohl’s Cares volunteers from the Kohl’s in Lewisville: Amy Holland (manager), Dennis, Violeta, Siti, and Joanna. As part of the Kohl’s Cares program, these volunteers also donated forty new books to the book fair!

Perhaps you would like to volunteer with a group from your workplace. We can help you set it up! Contact [email protected].

Jun 06
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Summer Reading Kick-off!

By Support, What's Happening No Comments

“This event was amazing,” said librarian Veronica Hernandez, “The book fair allowed students to get a book they likely would not have had otherwise.”

Book Drive for Kids burst into June with two of our largest events of the school year! Lewisville Elementary and Central Elementary (also in Lewisville) invited us to hold free Book Fairs for their students to kick-off their emphasis on summer reading.

In just two days, over 1,600 students browsed the book tables and found a special book to call their own. While these students have a strong thirst for knowledge, for many, purchasing a book is a luxury. Some students wanted to learn more about sharks while others chose books on World War II still others chose fantasy adventures or joke books. The thing that they all shared was a warm smile and eyes filled with anticipation.

“It was heartwarming to see our students in the bus lines so excited about their new books; asking if they could read them while they waited for their bus to be called,” said a teacher. Lewisville Elementary had recently completed their Scholastic Book Fair. Ms. Hernandez noticed many students who wanted to get books but did not have the funds to do so. Book Drive for Kids was able to satisfy that desire!

“Thank you so much for coming to our school,” Katie Delamarter, librarian at Central Elementary, said, “I am on cloud nine seeing the joy on the faces of these students upon being able to choose their own book.” Another teacher shared, “My students kept asking me, ‘Do I really get to keep this book?’” She replied with a smile, “YES!”

This response is not unique. We hear similar comments after each and every free Book Fair: Children eager to learn and excited for the opportunity to choose a book to call their own. Teachers encouraged by the joy on their students faces and grateful for another voice in this child’s life encouraging them to read books.

The question that pierced my heart was, “How many books can I get?” Our program allows for just one book for each child but with your help, maybe next year we can say, “Get as many as you want!”

Will you help us share the joy of reading?
Get involved: organize a book donation drive, volunteer at a free book fair, or donate funds so we can purchase high-demand book titles.
Visit https://bookdrive.wpengine.com/ to learn more!

There are many more children in schools just like these across the DFW area. With your help, we can support each and every one of them in the coming year!

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