Editor’s Note: K is for Kids no longer operates as a nonprofit organization. This website continues in order to showcase its work with children of all ages and to help inspire others who are impassioned to do the same. Click here to read more: https://www.kisforkids.org/news/k-is-for-kids-writes-new-chapter/
Building Books Nooks for Kids became the second book donation and reading program of K is for Kids, in order to address the needs of children both in and out of school.
Books are contributed to shared reading environments offered by other nonprofit organizations for children.
K is for Kids has benefited children of Brightest Horizons, the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County, Immokalee Child Care Center, the Family Literacy Academy at Farm Workers Village (Collier County Housing Authority Lane, Immokalee), AMIKids-Big Cypress (the “Swamp Boys”), Fun Time Early Childhood Academy, the Children’s House, and the Foster Care Council of SWFL.
Pictured above: 500 reasons to smile! Thanks to the success of “Books for Jeans” drives conducted by students and staff at North Naples Middle School, almost one thousand books have been collected for children in need with 750 of those going to the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County in 2010 & 2011. Shown here are two avid readers at the BGCCC after the first 500-book delivery was received in the summer of 2010. In March 2011, the Boys & Girls Club selected over 600 books and reading materials for their students to enjoy at K is for Kids’ “Big Book Giveaway” and annual distribution of books to grant recipients.
Yes, words can paint the story, but here the youngsters’ smiles do say it all: Kids love getting new books to read! For the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County, keeping up with the kids’ reading enthusiasm is always a challenge as about 450 children clamor through its state-of-the-art facility during the school year; come summer, that number will rise close to 1,000, reports Greg Kutz, the Club’s on-site director. It’s all taken in stride here at the Club whose staff members team up to hit their own high expectations and goals. And their efforts have not gone unnoticed: Ranked in the top five Boys & Girls Clubs in the country, the Collier County Club has received the Program Excellence Award for Best Overall Program three years in a row by their national organization. [Visit their website at http://www.bgccc.com/ to read more.]
In K is for Kids’ first fun’raising season (2008-09), with the Club’s new library to fill and knowing many children would be entering with the hope of discovering another great story to read, the Club’s need to collect more books was presented to K is for Kids. Fortunately for the Foundation, ’twas the season of giving at North Naples Middle School: geography teacher, Bradley Preston had just contacted ‘k4kids’ founder Karen Clawson to tell her the students were organizing a holiday book drive to benefit K is for Kids®.
NNMS’ Student Council launched the “Books for Jeans” campaign, a theme that would prove to be popular motivator: Students who donated a book would be allowed to deviate from their modified uniform dress code for one day. In one week’s time over 500 books were collected then sent over to help fill the shelves at the Boys & Girls Club.
The timing of the books’ arrival couldn’t have been better — with summer soon rounding the corner, there would hundreds more hungry minds to feed at the Boys & Girls Club.
NOTE: NNMS students held a second books for jeans drive the following year, and children at the Boys & Girls Club, as well as Immokalee Child Care, received new books!
Many thanks to Mr. Preston, the staff, students and their families at North Naples Middle School for their continued commitment to helping children in Collier County have more books to read in and out of school.
The NNMS community marked an important milestone for K is for Kids, becoming the to sponsor a book drive for the Foundation’s “kids.” The following fun’raising year, students held their second “Books for Jeans” drive, collecting over 450 books.)