BOISE BENCH- — United Way of Treasure Valley is raising awareness for childhood literacy through an annual event.
- United Way of Treasure Valley is gearing up for their 9th Annual Children's Book Drive.
- From March 11th to 29th United Way will be accepting book donations for Treasure Valley youth
- Drop off locationsare at participating Albertsons, CapEd, and WaFd branches.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Literacy is an important tool that we ask to use every single day and it's especially important for childhood development, and United Way of Treasure Valley is raising awareness for childhood literacy through an annual event.
“He'll look at certain books with pictures and he says 'dada' for dogs, so he'll point to any dog in a book and go 'dada,'” said Maya Medley.
Maya Medley brings her son, Theodore, to the Boise Library every week for storytime. Their families sing songs and read books, with an emphasis on improving childhood literacy.
Micaela Brittsan is the Youth Services Librarian for the Boise Library.
“It's for them to be able to identify that books have language and words on the page so when they start to interact with books they understand and just learn different vocabulary they wouldn’t hear normally," added Micaela Brittsan, Youth Services Librarian for Boise Library.
Meagan Moering is also a parent who attends story times at the library, she says, “It's my understanding that the sooner you can start the better and it's also just good socially for him too.”
It's also an important issue to the United Way of Treasure Valley as they gear up for their annual book drive to benefit local children.
"We really push the books is a huge thing, but what we really want to push is literacy," added Shawn Reilly, with United Way.
The organization will be collecting book donations from March 11th through the 29th.
They'll be accepting books for all ages, but Shawn Reilly, Director of Resource Development and Community Engagement with United Way, says a big focus is books for kindergarten to 5th grade.
“We want to help ensure that that third graders can read by the third-grade level by the time they leave third grade it's the single biggest indicator for the success of a child," said Reilly.
The books will be given to local kids to keep at home for themselves, hoping to turn today's readers into tomorrow's leaders.
Medley says, “Even if they don't understand what the book the meaning or the moral or everything like that they're going to be picking up on the repetitions, eventually they'll start picking up on what the words are if you point to the words while you're reading.”
And that's something United Way wants all kids to experience, no matter their home situation.
"The nature of another family living with another family, living in a mission, living in a motel they don't have the opportunity to have books like maybe you and I had growing up and we want to do everything we can to help them get a book,” says Shawn Reilly.
You can drop off those books participating Albertsons, CapEd, and WaFd Branches.
