TULSA, Okla. — The non-profit Gaining Ground Literacy usually delivers free books to Tulsa metro kids during the summer months when students are out of school.
However, amid the pandemic, the organization adapted to provide books for students who are distance learning.
READ MORE: Give a Child a Book: Nonprofit bookmobile changing lives in the Union school district
The non-profit's Executive Director Lisa Shotts said she and Co-Director Kirby Mackenzie decided to provide extra books during the first nine weeks of school because kids having fresh material to read fosters a life long love of reading.
“The gap is just going to widen for our kiddos who don’t have access to books,” Shotts said. “It why we knew we had to step-up.”
In addition, new books students pick on their own encourages them to read every day which further develops their literacy.
“Now that the pandemic has hit, we are totally changing our programming,” Shotts said. “As soon as the schools shut down, we went into action.”
READ MORE: Give A Child A Book: Taking 'Book Deserts' in Tulsa County Down!
Shotts and Kirby bought over 30,000 new books to give to kids.
“Our students that are experiencing distance learning don’t have their classroom libraries to pull from, don’t have their school library to pull from,” Shotts said. “Distance learning is still happening and TPS and multiple other schools, we are ramping back up to have a book delivery system at the end of September.”
To learn more about how you can donate to Gaining Ground Literacy or to have your child start receiving new books, click here.
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