Over 2,400 K-2 students start summer with new books, thanks to community members and BookFest
Students at Spring Creek Elementary School in Eugene hold up their books they received through BookFest.
BookFest aims to prevent the “summer slide” and instill a love of reading in young students
As of last Friday, June 14, over 2,400 Lane County K-2 students now have brand new books as they head into summer, thanks to a community-wide book gifting program called BookFest.
Started seven years ago by Connected Lane County and United Way of Lane County, BookFest aims to inspire a love of reading for students and prevent the “summer slide” – when students lose important reading skills they’ve gained during the school year.
Upon hearing they’d get to pick out five books to take home as part of this program, shouts of “We get to keep them forever?”, “WOW”, “FIVE!?”, and “This is the best day ever!” were heard at one school; similar sentiments shared by students across the county.
Stopping the Summer Slide
Increasing students’ access to books is one crucial way to help improve reading scores. Given the most recent English Language Arts state assessment showing that 60% of Lane County students aren’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade, BookFest is one important way to support young readers. Data shows that when students aren’t reading proficiently by third grade, they are four times less likely to graduate on time.
“Beating the summer slide to maintain or build reading skills is an important goal for us schoolwide and in my library lessons. I talk about the public library and eBooks, but letting kids choose and take-home books. Can’t beat that!”
Volunteers from SELCO Community Credit Union volunteering at McCornack Elementary School in Eugene.
Between the end of May and the last day of school, approximately 2,490 students at 19 schools participated in BookFest, getting to choose five brand new books to take home to build their home libraries. Participating schools spanned Eugene 4J, Bethel, Springfield, South Lane, Oakridge, Lowell, Marcola, and Mapleton school districts. Each year, schools are selected based on whose students have the most opportunity to improve reading scores.
“This is so incredibly valuable,” shared one teacher, “because it levels the playing field. If our students don’t have families that have the capacity to access the library, then our students don’t have access to books. For them to receive brand new books helps them to experience the joy of getting books that they actually like. Many other hand-me-downs and thrift store finds are OK if kids like to read, but we are trying to inspire kids to like to read. The new books are very key to doing that.”
A Community-wide effort
Over 85 community volunteers helped at distribution events, including Pia Sosa, a volunteer from SELCO Community Credit Union who volunteered at César E. Chávez Elementary School in Eugene.
“Volunteering at BookFest was such a great experience! It was so fun getting to interact with the kids and helping them find books they would want to read over the summer. It was awesome to speak to kids in Spanish and help them find books in their native language, too!”
A message from students at Marcola Elementary School: "Thank you!"
Walterville Elementary School Librarian Tiffany Haugen shared her appreciation for the community volunteers who helped at the distribution events: “Giving kids books for specified "summer reading" shows them how much adults care about their literacy... Having adults come into a space full of children gives the kids a chance to interact with strangers and see kindness in the world.”
Books were purchased with funds raised by community members and sponsors, including the Eugene Education Foundation, Springfield Education Foundation, Bethel Education Foundation, Lane Education Foundation, OCCU Foundation, SELCO Community Credit Union, Pacific Cascade Federal Credit Union, Sierra Pacific Foundation, and with support from The Duck Store.
A number of local companies also hosted book drives around the county, raising over 650 books to-date, which will be donated to SMART Reading’s book gifting program. These companies included Adventure! Children's Museum, Papé Group, PIVOT Architecture, Roehl & Yi Investment Advisors, Umpqua Bank, Watkinson Laird Rubenstein, P.C., and the Willamette Dental Group – Eugene.
As a community-wide effort, BookFest is not possible without donors, sponsors, and volunteers. Learn more at unitedwaylane.org/bookfest.