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.

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!

I love these mornings!

This morning we got to hand books out to the kids that were waiting in line for food at Community Harvest. It is so cool to see how excited they are to get a free book!

How Many Books Could a Book Boxer Box?

We were featured as part of a blog entry for the website DoSomething.org. Love this website! It is a great place to get ideas for things you can do to make a difference. Check out the blog entry here. Scroll down to the middle of the article to find us.

Where do the books go?

This program was started because of a challenge on a site called DoSomething.org. This is a site that challenges teens to do something to make a difference in their communities. After seeing a challenge about setting up a bookshelf for needy children my sixteen year old daughter started thinking about where she could set up a bookshelf to make the most impact.

After talking to our friends at Community Harvest, we were told that our local Rotary Club had wanted to set up a bookshelf there but they had no one to take charge of keeping the shelf filled. That is where we come in. We take between 100-150 to Community Harvest to stock the shelves. The employees there make sure that parents with young children know that their children can grab a free book before they leave.

This part of the program would not be possible if not for the help of all the amazing employees and volunteers that work the register at Community Harvest. They make sure that our books get into the hands of the kids who visit the food bank. Thank you!

Getting Started

We have been so blessed to have met so many generous people that helped us get the program off the ground! We owe a special thanks to Krista at Kate's Kart. Krista gives new books to children at local hospitals. Since she is dealing with sick kids she needs to make sure that all the books she donates are germ-free. Once in a while she gets books that are not brand new and she was generous enough to pass some of those books on to us.

Another big thank you goes out to the Garrett Public Library. They have donated over 500 children's books after the renovation of their library last year. This was just our latest trip!

We also need to thank Pathway Community Church and Betsy Beers. We were fortunate to receive over 300 unsold books after their yearly garage sale.

Without all these generous people and so many more we would have never been able to get the program off the ground.