Midsouth Literacy Week- Mar 9, 2015 to Mar 13, 2015

First Book, a non-profit organization based in Washington DC was in Memphis during the week of March 9th with the intent to distribute 500,000 new books to organizations that work with children. First Book’s mission of putting new books in the hands of the children who need them most resonates well with Literacy Mid-South, a local non-profit organization with similar goals. Forty-two percent of children in the United States — more than 30 million — live in low-income households. Most of these children have no age-appropriate books at home, and the classrooms and programs they attend are woefully under-resourced. Approximately two-thirds of these schools and programs cannot afford to buy books at retail prices.

Volunteers from various local groups showed up Monday through Friday at a warehouse that housed these 500K books to help pack, sort, label, move and distribute the books. The contingent of volunteers from the Indian Community that represented ICFGM included many of our seniors. Our appreciation goes out to them for showing up with enthusiastic smiles on their faces to make this effort possible. With boxes weighing from 10 to 40 pounds, the work was at times demanding but little did it deter them. With clipboards of book orders in their hands, they walked for hours within the warehouse trying to find boxes of books (some of them were quite elusive to find). At the end of the shifts they walked out with a certain sense of having used their time well to help those in need. If you share such ideals and wish to make a difference in your community, we encourage you to join ICFGM’s next volunteer outing. Click here to sign up for our next event!