Jasper and I volunteered at the
Children's Book Bank recently. It's a cheery place where stacks and stacks of new and gently used books awaited us, in need of inspection. It was surprising to me how really nice the books were, both in terms of their condition and their quality. Pages needed to be checked for marks, which were then to be erased or possibly covered with plain white stickers. Board books got a quick spray and wipe. Once we were sure the books looked good, we handed them over to be sorted and distributed to low income families. The Children's Book Bank emphasizes that having books in a kid's home that they can read makes a significant difference in their lives, and they make every effort to make sure the books are in good shape to make a nice gift. They said that statistically low income families have one book per 300 kids. That's pretty awful. What I thought was even weirder was that they said that middle income families have an average of 13 books per child. It seemed odd to me that families that could presumably afford books, would not choose to buy them. Maybe that's why low income children in turn have fewer, if fewer books are being printed and bought to begin with. How sad. My favorite books from childhood are like dear friends.
Jasper enjoyed this volunteer opportunity. They generally have a waiting list for volunteer opportunities on days when they offer them to families, and I expect less actually gets accomplished in terms of actual books inspected and cleaned than when they have all adult groups. But it's worth doing. There's always a point to service learning, giving a child a sense that they can, and should, help others. Helping to give other kids good books to read is something most kids can feel good about. And it can't hurt to bring so many families there to help and learn more about their mission. Now I know what to do with any children's books we have that are ready to be passed on to new readers. This is just one of many volunteer opportunities you can read about and sign up for at
Hands On Greater Portland. (Their database can be searched by a child's age).
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