OAK PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Today we want to celebrate our ‘If You Give a Child a Book’ campaign. This year, thanks to your help, employees here at Channel 7, TV20 Detroit and the Scripps Howard Fund put thousands of high-quality books into the hands of children in our community.
We visited one of the schools that benefited from our campaign to show you firsthand the impact. We paid a visit to Pepper Elementary School today where each child at this very school got a chance to take home five high-quality books to begin a library of their own.
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WXYZ’s Carolyn Clifford asked, “When did you start loving reading?”
Gregory Brown is a 5th grader at Pepper Elementary School in Oak Park.
“I loved reading in like 2nd grade. My stepmom told me, it’s good to read because reading helps with your imagination,” said Gregory Brown, a 5th Grader at Pepper Elementary.
Not just for the pleasure of it. His parents taught him, it’s a must in his future career as a potential football or baseball star.
“If somebody gives you a contract, you have to read it, you can’t get the contract and not know what you’re reading,” said Brown.
Dr. Antoinette Durden has been a librarian for 30 years. 22 years ago, every elementary school library was closed until she got involved. She has been here at Pepper Elementary in Oak Park for two years. She knows what it means to send kids home with books they have selected on their own from our campaign.
“They're even asking can I take this book home, are we going to get more books they're so excited,” said Dr. Antoinette Durden, Librarian at Pepper Elementary. “Yes, guess what, they’re coming back.”
“They’re so excited to build that library at home,” Durden added.
Experts say for a child to have wins in the classroom and in their future career learning to read and having access to books is key.
“It's not often that children in our school can just go to a book fair without any money and get the books that they're interested in,” said Principal Emanuel Haley at Pepper Elementary.
Haley believes with some of the education loss from the pandemic, economic issues, and a high illiteracy rate in the metro Detroit area this campaign makes a difference.
“The work that Scripps Howard, WXYZ is doing is very impactful,” said Haley. “It’s a game changer for a lot of kids.”
“Those books plant the seeds that will change the trajectory of their lives those books give children hope,” said Haley.
According to the 2019 study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 25 million children in America cannot read proficiently. Providing books through our ‘If You Give a Child a Book’ Campaign is helping put a dent in the problem.
Year and year we have been so proud of this campaign and by partnering with local schools to make an impact on the lives of underserved children with a special target on kids in kindergarten through third grade we are truly making a difference.
Books are carefully chosen with the needs of students at each school and classroom. The best part of the goal of this year’s campaign is to give each child ten age-appropriate books again to begin their own library at home.
“To be able to reach out to the community and give new, age-appropriate, diverse books to children and families is a tremendous gift and we thank everybody in the community for supporting it,” said Mike Murri, WXYZ/WYMD General Manager.
