More than 300 first-graders in Florida’s Big Bend are getting more than 4,000 books. The books are being donated as part of the United Way of Big Bend’s Read United initiative.
In the next five days more than 100 community members, recruited by the United Way, will read and distribute about 4,000 books to children in eight North Florida counties. It’s the third year the group has put on the reading event and Early Literacy Coordinator with the United Way, Courtenay Garcia points out that improving literacy helps kids in all areas of life.
“Everything that we learn is based around reading, getting that information in word format. So, without being able to read later on in life you really are skipping out on a lot of that education which then of course without a high school graduation can lead to unemployment or poor jobs,” Garcia said.
As a part of the event, some classrooms in the Big Bend will be read to by a few local officials like Tallahassee Mayor Marks, City Commissioner Andrew Gillum, and radio personality Jason Taylor. The read-a-thon runs from May 6 to the 10.