Get Out and Read

Birmingham Reads is a city-wide celebration of reading that is a collaborative project of Better Basics, the Junior League of Birmingham, The Literacy Council and the Children’s Literacy Guild.  Additionally, this event is sponsored by Books-A-Million, Alabama’s 13, and Colonial Brookwood Village. 

I look forward to it every year. Last year, it was on "Poem in Your Pocket Day" and I took little poems for the children in the classroom assigned to me. This is an absolutely wonderful thing to do ... very rewarding for the readers and those being read to.

 

Birmingham Reads is a three-pronged event. 

 

• The first component is Birmingham Reads Day.  On April 19^th at 1:00 p.m.  volunteers will read to every Kindergarten through fifth-grade classroom in Birmingham City Schools.  Each student will also receive a book of their own to take home.  That means we will read to 634 classrooms and distribute books to almost 14,000 students on that day. 

 

• The second component of Birmingham Reads is the Birmingham Reads Book Drive.  Businesses, including America’s First Federal Credit Union, schools and individuals will be collecting new and gently used children’s books to support the book drive taking place April 1^st -21^st.  The books collected will be provided to children who have little access to quality reading materials. 

 

• Schools in many communities are supporting the efforts by participating in the Birmingham Reads Book Drive Competition.  The school that collects the most books to donate will be provided with a $1,000 prize for their school library. 

 

• Businesses and individuals supporting the efforts can drop their book collections off at Brookwood Village all day on Friday, April 20^th.   Alabama’s 13 will be on hand to help collect the books.

 

• The third component of this event is Birmingham Reads/Brookwood Celebrates. On Saturday, April 21^st, the entire community is invited to join the celebration of reading from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the streetscape outside Brookwood Village.  There will be lots of fun entertainment and activities for kids, celebrity readings, and your favorite book characters.  We will continue collecting books from the community for the book drive. Schools participating in the Birmingham Reads Book Drive Competition will bring their collections to Birmingham Reads/Brookwood Celebrates where the winner will be announced.  

 

• The community can also support the Birmingham Reads project by going to the Birmingham Reads website, www.birminghamreads.com.  For every dollar donated, one book can be purchased for a child in need. 

 

• Community members may also volunteer to read to a classroom on Birmingham Reads Day by contacting Kathleen Drake with Better Basics at volunteer@betterbasics.org.

Comments

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Yes. reading is an absolutely wonderful thing to do...

[Jinendra]

YES REALLY! Well, you and a guy I knew back in Copenhagen years ago ;) I'll be lnoikog out for more Vonnegut, that is for sure.Happy new year to you too!