A Milestone!

When asked to write a goal for my program, I said that my goal was to hand out 10,000 books by the end of 2016. I really didn't think that goal was likely. We counted the books last week and.... 😃

Another Beautiful Saturday

There is no better way to spend a beautiful Saturday!

Little Free Libraries

One of the less obvious parts of our mission is filling various little free libraries around town with children's books. We dropped off close to 200 books yesterday around town. We try to fill the boxes in parts of town where the kids are less likely to have access to books. We currently fill  5 libraries on a regular basis and are adding 2 more this week.

Fort Wayne Urban League                                   Boys and Girls Club

Early Childhood Alliance

WOW what a day!

The end of the month is always a busy time at Community Harvest but today was record setting. It is humbling to see how many people show up for free food. They gave away food to nearly 1000 families. We came armed with more books than usual. We gave away 210 and put an additional 125 for the bookshelf inside. We definitely met some cuties.

Chapel Oaks Back to School event

I got to be a part of a really cool event last week. Chapel Oaks apartment complex hosted a back to school celebration. They handed out free school supplies, clothing, hot dog dinners and books of course!

They had a horse drawn buggy giving rides to all the kids too.

See the sweet guy on the right in the orange shirt? He was my personal assistant all day. He walked up about 10 minutes after I got there and told me he was going to help me. What a great kid and a born salesman!

The fire department even came by with a special treat for the kids on a very warm day!

In total we gave away over 70 books and met some great people in the process.

McMillen Community Center

We spent the morning giving away close to 400 books at the McMillen Community Center during their free backpack give away. While there, we met a bunch of great teens!

Weisser Park

End of the summer celebration at Weisser park today. Gave away close to 400 books. We had some time to chat with the kids while we were waiting to get started! ❤️

Giving them a "Headstart"

 We spent lunch giving books to these sweet kids at a Headstart program downtown. One of the best parts about sharing  books with kids is the look on their faces when we get to tell them that they can keep the books.

The sweet one in the middle asked Katie what her name was when we stopped to talk to them. As we were leaving she then proceeded to yell "Thank you Katie!" 😀 This resulted in a chorus of "Thank you Katie!"from around the room.  

There really is no other way that I would rather spend my free time than this. I mean seriously, look at those sweet faces.

 

Looking forward to Friday when we get to hand out close to 600 books down at Weiser Park! 

Just a few of the cuties we got to give books to this week

We got to give away close to 600 books this week! These little cuties are just a few of the kids we met. As we were giving out books a couple of them just climbed right up on my lap. :) I even got to read a little bit to them.

This article tells exactly why we do what we do! Planning on giving away over 600 books this week. God is so good! Please take a minute read this article. It gets to the heart of our whole program.
Children Who Grow Up in "Book Deserts"

We have new friends!

Oh my gosh, these little guys are so cute! I am so excited to be working with the Apple Tree Center in Kendallville. We took them 75 books this morning to give to these sweet kids, a few for their library and the rest will go to a nearby apartment complex that they also support. They even made bookmarks for me to hand out to the kids on Saturday mornings at Community Harvest. Thank you to everyone that makes these kind of trips possible!

One Year!

It is hard to believe that it has been one year since I started Hope Books! I want to thank everyone who has donated books to the program. So far we have given away over 4300 books! Can't wait to see what God has in store for this next year!