Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch's Books for Kids program hopes to expand

The Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch’s Books for Kids program will distribute its 100,000th book donation by the end of March, and it’s not stopping there.

Even through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Books for Kids program has continued to support 10 Title I schools in the School District of Manatee County and two Title I schools in Sarasota County Public Schools. 

“What you do is invaluable to the learning each and every day that our students are experiencing,” said Cynthia Saunders, the superintendent of the School District of Manatee County, to the dozens of Books for Kids volunteers during the program’s annual luncheon Feb. 23 at the Lakewood Ranch Country Club. “I can tell you (the students) felt the loss of the last few years of not seeing your faces and without (volunteers) being able to come into our buildings. We are so grateful that we’re getting back to normalcy.”

Although volunteers for the program still can't be in the classrooms due to pandemic protocols, they continue to distribute about 3,800 books to 181 classrooms and a media center each month.

Some volunteers were able to continue building relationships with students virtually. 

A group of volunteers used Zoom to read to classes virtually at Gocio Elementary School. 

Other volunteers provided mentoring and helped Manatee County students develop their reading skills through one-on-one meetings after school either in person or virtually. 

Before the pandemic began, Books for Kids had 125 volunteers going into 125 classrooms, a dramatic increase from the five volunteers going into five classrooms when the program started eight years ago.

“It’s hard to believe, for me, the growth of the Books for Kids program,” said Ted Lindenberg, the director of the Books for Kids program. “It takes many people working together. If we go into 181 classrooms, we need 181 volunteers. It’s just amazing for me to even think about that number. It’s been a joy. It’s been tough. … It’s emotional to talk about a program that means so much to children. We’re just trying to help.”

Now Books for Kids is working to expand its reach in schools. 

Books for Kids tried to launch a pilot program for kindergartners at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, but the pandemic has forced the pilot program to wait until the 2022-2023 school year to begin. 

“If we’re going to make a difference, we need to reach these boys and girls as early as possible,” Lindenberg said. “Where else could we do that than to go into the kindergarten classrooms?”

The pilot program will start in two Manatee County Title I schools. A Books for Kids volunteer will be paired with a kindergartner to provide weekly one-on-one mentorship while also assisting in their academics. 

“They’re trained volunteers so they’ll be reading one-on-one with kindergarten students,” said Sheila Halpin, the coordinator for the School District of Manatee County’s grade level reading campaign and volunteer programs. “They’re going to be given a tool kit that has different manipulatives they can use with that child after they read the story, so it will have things in it such as magnetic letters. They’re going to be working on letter identification and sound identification, and they’ll play comprehension games with the children that support the book they just read.”  

Halpin said the district’s curriculum team worked with Books for Kids to ensure all the materials the program will use are in alignment with the district’s curriculum.

Country Club’s Eck Kuesters hasn’t been in the classroom for four years, but he can’t wait to return next school year to help with the new kindergarten program.

Kuesters recalled the first time he stepped into a classroom to volunteer for Books for Kids.

To break the ice with his students and calm his nervousness, he read jokes from a joke book on his first visit. When he came back the next month, students had jokes to share with him. Jokes ended up being a common way for Kuesters and the students to build a relationship.

“By the end of the year, virtually all the kids had an opportunity to pick out a joke from the joke book,” Kuesters said. “It just worked out to be a beneficial experience for both them and myself. Children are sponges for knowledge and enthusiasm is the catalyst for improvement,” Kuesters said. “If we can trigger that then we’ve done what we need to do.”

Shelby Bench, the principal at Blanche H. Daughtrey Elementary School, said the Books for Kids program has greatly benefitted her students as they always look forward to seeing the volunteers and can’t wait for their new books. 

Daughtrey Elementary’s staff isn’t always able to deliver the Books for Kids books to the classes on the same day they are dropped off at the school. When students come into the front office and see the Books for Kids bags, Bench said they’re so excited to see their new books, they ask to deliver the books to the classrooms themselves.

“It’s cute because they know what the blue bag represents,” Bench said. “It’s a book for them, so the kids enjoy it. I think the biggest thing is they take a sense of pride and ownership because that is now theirs. It’s not something they checked out of the library and have to return. It’s not something they checked out from their classroom library. It’s theirs so it’s invaluable what this program provides to the students.”

Lindenberg hopes to expand to more schools within the School District of Manatee County, which has 14 Title I schools, but the program needs financial support in order to be able to provide books to dozens more children every month.