By Pamela A. Flores
When TARGet Kids! (TK!) was looking for an activity to give back to our community, we wanted to do something that is in line with our team's mission of "Healthy Children Together". So, when we found the website of The Children's Book Bank, it immediately made a spark.
The Children's Book Bank is a non-for-profit organization that helps promote early literacy by giving out free books and reading support to families in and around Regent Park, Thorncliffe Park, East Scarborough, Mount Dennis/York, and the North York Area. They also distribute books to help support literacy programs in schools, shelters, food banks, and learning centres. The initial plan was a story-telling/book reading activity to kids by the TK! team. However, because of how many of us wanted to be involved in reading to the kids, space was an issue. This was a blessing in disguise because our team came up with a better idea for even more of us to get involved. It was something that would make a more lasting impact to the children and their families which was a book donation drive. The TARGet Kids! team went all-out with everyone sharing books to donate and we were able to collect more than 350 books from colorful baby books to the novel books for youth and young adults. We achieved our main goal: to help promote early literacy in children which we strongly believe can help bring healthy and brighter futures.
On drop off day, December 21st, we met Dave Page who is in-charge of the book inventory and donation receiving section of the warehouse. Dave is a lovely guy who, has a very deep love of reading which he has also imparted to his own children. He said a very nice thing that stuck with us:
“For small children, do not teach them to read but teach them to have the love of reading!”
He showed us the room with all the nice books received from donations and the inviting reading spaces where children and families can pick up books or listen to story time. It‘s got books that every child, from babies to teenagers, would love to take home and keep for themselves.
We will forever be grateful for this experience. This not only showed the unity among our TARGet Kids! team but also has proven again our strong conviction to improve the health of Canadian children.