HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Hillsborough County School leaders are asking people in the community to consider taking part in their BOOKtober Virtual Book Drive and give the gift of a book to a child. All books purchased will be used to create home libraries for children in the Tampa Bay area community.
GIVE A CHILD A BOOK | Donate to the BOOKtober Virtual Book Drive
Follett Books is partnering with Hillsborough County Schools and School Board member Dr. Stacy Hahn, who is leading this effort.
"Follett Books has hundreds of books to choose from," Dr. Hahn said. "Each book will be gifted to children during our Early Childhood Literacy Fairs and Storytime Online Book Tour."
For every book donated, Follett will give the district 40 percent back to purchase more books.
To put that into perspective, your $10 donation of books through this virtual book fair actually amounts to $14 worth of books for children and their home libraries.
"For many of our families, they don't have the discretionary income to purchase books for their home, which means they don't have the opportunities like other children to be read to every day," Hahn said.
The home libraries, created through the books purchased and donated through this virtual book fair, will be given to children during this year's Early Literacy Fair on November 21.
But due to COVID-19 precautions, this will be a drive-thru event. Families can still expect plenty of community partners to take part in providing food, music, and other activities for kids.
The deadline to donate books to the virtual book fair is October 31.
