Success at the Great Book Giveaway

Over 600 elementary students from 2 local elementary schools were thrilled to pick up 10 new books each to enjoy over summer break. It didn’t cost them a cent.

At the cost of over $12,000, BASES purchased over 10,000 books of varying genres and age categories. The Great Book Giveaway Campaign raised nearly $4000 and BASES Family Thrift Store covered the rest. Thanks to Peggy Woodruff, Brenda Hain and Kathy Richardson for organizing this event that saw each child from Stride Elementary School and Edmonds Community School joyfully choose 10 books of their liking. Over 20 volunteers excitedly organize the books according to age and personally guided the kids to find books of their choosing. Once the books were selected, students confidently wrote their names in each of them confirming the fact that they indeed were their new rightful owner.

A tremendous amount of time and energy went into setting up this event. From purchasing the books, working with the schools to schedule the days, transporting the books to and from the schools, setting it all up in the gyms, making sure there were enough volunteers and not to mention all the teachers who realigned their teaching programs to make it happen for their students. It was a lot of work but oh so worth it. We would also like to say a huge Thank You to Owl Crate who eagerly donated to us a special selection of books that our intermediate students loved.

This event is purposefully done in June. When school ends, the option of books dwindles in the summertime. This event allows them to have 10 fresh books to keep their imaginations busy until the start of a new school year. Look for us again next year as we look forward to growing this outreach program into new schools and reaching even more students.