Hi, I'm Natalie Pillsbury, President and CEO of PBS Western Reserve, and I'm joined by Marybeth Gibbons, who is our Pledge Drive Manager.

We are so excited to be here with you today to share our brand new local program, Let's Read Together.

This program was created in partnership with a couple of book bank partners in our region.

We went out to help tell their stories and to share the great work that they're doing in the community to provide books and literacy resources to children throughout our communities.

So we hope that you enjoy learning a little bit more about their work, and also know that when you make the choice to support PBS Western Reserve with a contribution right now, your contribution will be doing double duty.

So you'll be supporting our organization.

But then, your thank you gift will be something that supports our Book Bank partners.

And Marybeth will describe a little bit more about how that works.

- Yeah.

During this show, we're going to ask you to make a donation to PBS Western Reserve.

And as your thank you gift, we are going to donate, in your honor, books to one of our local book banks.

And we have a goal of 2,000 books that we want to donate.

So we need your help.

- Yes.

It's so important that you make a contribution right now.

It is September and so it is Literacy Awareness Month, a great time to support PBS Western Reserve.

And in turn, your contribution will result in a thank you gift of books going to our book Bank partners, for example, a contribution of $120 will mean that your thank you gift is for books that go to our book bank partners.

So we're so excited to bring you this program.

We're going to kick it off with a visit to Kids’ Book Bank, which we visited earlier this summer.

And so we'll highlight a little bit about the great work that they are doing in the community to help children, build their literacy skills.

Thank you.

- Well, today we are at the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank, watching our wonderful volunteers from PNC sort our books that are gently used that come from the community, and go out to homes so that we can build in home libraries for all of our children.

- Volunteers come every day.

Monday through Saturday to sort those books by reading level, and really check them for quality and condition.

- It just reminds me back, you know, just a couple of years ago.

That it feels like when I was reading these books and I still think about them to this day.

- The Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank could not exist without volunteers.

We get individuals, corporations, businesses, civic groups all coming in to help us with books.

It's a very fun process, nostalgic.

You get to look at all of the kids books.

- It's cool to go back and now see some of the books that we read growing up here and going out to future generations.

- We take our time looking at quality.

And so our volunteers are critical to this process because we couldn't possibly, on our budget, afford to have people in paid positions doing that.

We have about 20 volunteers, three times a day coming through to help us get those 50,000 books out.

- Well volunteering is so important, because, like, we're all stewarded with certain gifts, talents and abilities and, you know, what we should be doing is leaning back and helping others that are in different situations.

I wouldn't say less fortunate, but in a different situation than we are.

And that's kind of the point of life is to help others to get to the goals and aspirations that, they and their families have helped set for them.

And that's something we're doing here today.

It's kind of a fun, group activity.

So we all work together and we know each other from the office, but you can kind of let your hair down if you had some here and just kind of chit chat and, work out- you know, work together, but outside of the office.

So it's a great place for our group to volunteer at as well.

- We love taking time away from our day to day, and come in here and to do something for a good cause.

Not only does it make us, you know, feel good ourselves, but we know we are supporting, you know, the youngsters out there that get to grow up and, you know, live around Cleveland.

- So the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank currently does not receive any government funding.

It's mostly foundation and individuals, but mostly individual giving.

Which is really unique for a nonprofit organization and we're very proud of those supporters.

- We rely heavily on local donations.

- 70% come from the community itself.

So we have big blue bins across the community, 22 of those.

You can find those on our website, and you can just dump your children's books in there, and we come and pick them up.

- Local book drives.

- Or people coming in and volunteering or bringing books in on a regular basis.

So as you can see, we're really crowded in this 5,500 square foot building.

This space is our office space, our storage space, and our volunteer space.

- It's really hard for us to store all of the books that we have and process them efficiently and timely, and get them out the door.

Space constraints, we're really limited in the number of books that we can store here, but we're also really limited the number of people that we can have working here.

And that's really the most limiting factor for the number of books that we're going to be able to distribute.

- And so we are moving, hopefully this fall into a new 24,000 square foot warehouse, a new home for us, a next chapter.

And in that space, we will be able to have more volunteers and acquire more books.

- So right now, our shifts are really capped at 20 people.

We can't fit more than that in here.

But in the new space, we're going to be able to cap those shifts at 40 people.

So we're really going to be doubling the number of people and the number of books that we processed.

- Because the demand is there.

We just don't have the ability to get the books in and store them and the volunteers to process them.

- One of the scenarios that we talked about, being a real reason why we would need a bigger space is like, what if somebody came to us one day and said, hey, I've got 100,000 brand new books and they're in really great shape, can I donate them to you?

We would have had to say, no.

We literally don't have the room in this warehouse to accept the books that people want to give to us.

And, several months ago, that exact scenario happened where we had an organization down in Columbus that said, I've got 100,000 brand new books, and we want to get them out of our space in the next 30 days, and can you take them?

And it was only because we had the new building that we knew we were going to be into, that we were able to figure out by working with our partners at Amazon to transport those books and get them stored temporarily so that we can eventually move them in the new space.

Just being able to say yes to these amazing, brand new, really great quality books would not have been possible if we didn't have the new space.

So right here, if you were to volunteer with us, there is a 100% chance that we would have to ask you at some point during your two hour shift to move out of the way so that we could get a cart or a pallet through and around the volunteers, and that is not going to be an issue in our new space.

We're so excited that in the new building, everything is going to make sense from a flow perspective.

And then on top of that, it's like quality of living stuff where like the lights don't always work in here and it's really cold in the winter time.

And we've had volunteers literally like wearing their coats and gloves and hats.

And then it's really hot in the summer.

- We had over $1 million of our $2 million campaign come from individuals, which is really amazing.

It just shows the commitment that our community has towards children's literacy.

Additionally, we’ve had some family foundations support our our campaign, and you can go online and see the list of donors, our literacy champions, who really made this happen.

We are still about $100,000 short of our $2 million goal, and once we achieve that, we can move on to renovation, making sure that the building is ADA compliant for all of our guests and volunteers.

So this space, in addition to its size, it's not conducive to having families and children come on site, which we think is an important part.

So the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation gave a large gift to this campaign so that we could have a literacy hub, a place where families can come on events can occur, and literacy can really be something that Cleveland is proud of and move that needle and move us up on the list of literacy.

If we look around and we look at health indicators, socioeconomic indicators, we know that there's something lacking from the very beginning.

And we really believe that that's education and literacy.

Literacy goes beyond just being able to read a book.

It's being able to read a room, read a person, read the expression and really succeed socially in this world.

- I mean, literacy carries with you everywhere you go.

And, you know, when we're taking a look at these books and they're meant to teach kids how to read and, also inform them and educate them at the same time.

- Literacy is sort of the cornerstone of how we interact with each other.

I think one of the things that really resonates with me about books, and sort of the power of reading is the experience of being able to empathize with others, with experiences that are different than yours.

And so if you're reading books to your kid from a really, really young age, there's just amazing research about how impactful that is.

- It's really the foundation of language and culture and society and everything.

And so, I mean, yeah, we kind of take it for granted.

But yeah, it's a skill that needs to be taught and needs to be built, it needs to be, worked on and improved.

- We believe that starting at the very youngest age, getting books in the home and the data supports that having books in the home is a game changer for children in terms of their academic success, their attendance, and all of the things for school.

And it's our mission to foster literacy and a love of reading is something that we hope will last a lifetime.

We hope that you're enjoying the Let's Read Together show during our book challenge.

It's so important to address issues related to literacy in our communities, and there are some great partners that we are working with to address these issues.

I'd like to introduce one of those partners, Natalie Friedl, who is the executive director of the Kids’ Book Bank.

We're so grateful to have you with us.

And thank you for answering some questions about your work.

- Sure.

- Yeah.

So, I want to start off by just asking, how did the Kids’ Book bank come to be, and how has it evolved over time?

- Right.

Well back in 2015, Little Free Libraries were really popular.

And, we were putting them up all around the city, and there were a few champions Margaret Bernstein, Judy Kovacs and Judy Payne, who were wondering how we're going to keep them full.

And so with a large donation of books, they acquired a space and began collecting the books to fill those little Free Libraries.

- That's an incredible story.

So it started there and then where are you now?

- It keeps evolving, right?

So, as we approach our 10th birthday.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

Yes.

It's really time for the next chapter.

We've outgrown our space and the need for books, and the demand is still really, really high.

We focus on the greater Cleveland area, and we're expanding out.

But 50,000 books a month, going out of a 50 500 square foot building.

And the orders keep coming in, and we have to keep putting limits on what people can take.

So we know that building those in home libraries are so important.

- Yes, absolutely.

Oh, I'm so impressed by your work.

So that's sort of a good segue into my next question.

What is the state of literacy in Ohio more broadly?

And what are some of the main issues that, you know, children and younger people face as they build their literacy skills?

- Well, the same issues that we have in all of the areas, right?

Health care, education, there's a discrepancy.

There's a large number of children who cannot read or cannot read at reading level.

And then there's a lot of kids that can.

And it is that disparity that really pushes us to make sure that we get books into the home.

We're not at the top of the list in terms of literacy, and we should be we have a lot of really great supporters, such as yourself, that are pushing the effort.

So we just need to kind of coordinate and collaborate a little bit more and make this happen.

- Yes.

It's so important.

So, could you expand on how how the Kid’s Book Bank addresses these issues related to literacy?

You distribute books, how do you make decisions about, you know, where you're prioritizing?

Because you do have limited resources.

- Sure, sure.

Well, first, the limited resources of space, that one was solved when we moved into this new 24,000 square foot building, which will be coming here this fall.

And we’ll be able to acquire the books from the community.

About 70% of the books come from the community and then go back out into the community.

And we know that, like learning a sport, you need equipment like learning, an instrument.

You need to have access to one.

We can't expect kids to read without books in the home.

- Absolutely.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Can you share a story or a testimonial, that really illustrates the impact of your organization's work, something that you saw or experienced in your time?

- Oh, there's so many stories, but, really, I think the key is that we go to partners to distribute the book.

So it's a caring adult who already has a relationship with the families that distribute the books or give them the option to choose what books that they want.

And we have them coming back to us and saying, you know, when we walked in, Joey was reading to his sister or mom was reading to dad on the couch, some of these kids books, so they're being used.

- That's incredible.

Also, I wanted to ask, how can people in the community help the Kid’s Book Bank?

How can they get involved?

- Absolutely.

So we always allow anybody to do a book drive for us so you can collect books and bring them to us.

And I know your audience is all over, but we can figure that out, right?

And you could bring them up to us and even spend a day volunteering with us just to see what it's like.

It's really great.

Good music, and sorting the books for quality and by reading level.

And then we also have fundraising events.

We have a really cool fundraiser coming up on October 25th, here in Cleveland, called Bet on Books, it's an Alice in Wonderland theme.

And you can find more information on our website for that.

- And really quickly, what is your favorite children's book and why?

I would have to go with Frog and Toad books.

My kids love those, and they have, like, meaningful life stories and a really easy format.

And they were able to to read them well.

So those are my favorites.

- Those are incredible.

Thank you so much.

And so we hope that you will help us out during our book challenge.

And we will be sharing some information with you about how you can support this effort right now.

- Now's your chance to support the efforts of our partner organizations by becoming a member of PBS Western Reserve.

You can help improve the literacy of children in our community and support local content like this with a donation today!

Your donation not only strengthens this public media organization, it also gives the gift of books to children.

When you give just $60, you become a member of PBS Western Reserve, and we gift two books on your behalf to Kid’s Book Bank, Bright Star Books or PBS Western Reserves Educational Services.

With a donation of $360, 12 books will be donated on your behalf.

A donation of $1,200 means 40 books will be donated.

A child who may not have the opportunity to discover the joy of reading could do so through your generosity, and you'll support public media.

You can make a difference today by giving at any level.

Call the number on your screen or scan the QR code to donate right now.

- We are so excited to have shared the segment about the Kids’ Book Bank and the great work that they're doing in the community.

It's so important providing books to children throughout our region to help with literacy, as it's so important and impacts lifelong learning.

The Kids’ Book Bank supports the Greater Cleveland area through their work.

And something I just learned was that Cleveland was actually a book desert.

And that fact was the reason why the Kids’ Book Bank was created to help to fight that book desert status and provide more books to children in our communities.

So we hope that, you know, you learned a lot from that segment about this organization and the work they do.

And that's why PBS Western Reserve is here and vital in our communities to bring you these stories of the organizations doing impactful work to fight challenges and issues that people in our communities face.

And programs like this require the support from our community.

So we are here during our book challenge, asking for your contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now.

And when you make a contribution to PBS Western Reserve during the book challenge, your thank you gift results in something special for our Book Bank partners.

Marybeth will share a little bit more about how that works.

- We would love you to donate to PBS Western Reserve because you love our local content and PBS Western Reserve.

Especially now with the loss of the federal funding, it's even more important.

But, because of this donation you're making, we are going to donate books to the local book banks in your honor.

So if you make a donation of $120, we're going to donate four books in your honor.

If you make a donation of $240, we're going to donate eight books in your honor.

So instead of getting a mug, a CD, or a DVD, your donation to us is actually going even further.

- Yes.

- We have a goal of donating 2,000 books in the month of September, which is Literacy Awareness Month.

- Yes.

And we're excited to be celebrating Literacy Awareness Month by bringing you these stories of the organizations in our community that are supporting the literacy of our youth.

When you make a contribution to PBS Western Reserve during our book challenge this September, your contribution goes double as far.

When you make that contribution, your thank you gift becomes books that are donated to our book bank partners.

And so maybe you want to make that $240 contribution that would result in eight books going to children in need in our communities.

Make your contribution right now to support PBS Western Reserve and your thank you gift of books.

And now, we’re gonna take you into Bright Star Books, a book bank that serves Summit, Portage, and Medina counties.

- So today we are doing one of what we call a free book fair at one of the Akron area YMCA, sort of like summer program sites.

And what we do is we bring in all the books that you see here on the table, and every child who comes to the program gets to choose five books to take home at no cost.

- Do you have any more Barbie books?

- We serve probably five or six sites, and each site has anywhere from 30 to 60 kids.

So a couple hundred kids over the course of the summer.

Our goal is just to get as many books into the hands of kids over the summer as possible.

The kids and the families do not have to pay anything.

They don't even have to sign up.

If they are enrolled in this program, they get books when they come.

Here at pretty much at every event we do is when I explain what we're doing or when they pick a book, one child without fail will always ask, well, when do we have to give it back?

So to be able to say, no, you get to keep this, this is yours.

I've had kids ask, can I write my name in it?

It seems really simple, but for them, it's really special to have something that is theirs, this is their book.

They don't have to give it back to the library or the school or anything like that.

There's a whole bunch of different books in there, but if there's something you really like and you don't see it, please ask me.

I'll do my best to help you find it.

Okay?

We've been doing these for quite a few years.

The kids will go, I remember when you were here last year.

I still have my Pokemon book or whatever it was from last year, which makes my heart so happy that they still have it.

And also like, okay, they've grown and they need books that are more age appropriate for them now.

We are actually able to operate off relatively minimal funding.

All the books we use— Well a great majority of the books we use are donated, so we don't have to pay for a majority of them.

We do purchase some especially if there's something specific we want to have, like content wise or things like that.

But almost all the books are just donated from the community.

Our biggest funder is Babcock's Family Foundation.

And then we do a couple of of different grant fundings here and there, Akron Community Foundation as well.

But, by and large, all of our funding is through book donations and book drives.

We are active in Medina, Portage, and Summit County.

With that said, a great majority of our program is happening in the greater Akron region.

So right here within Akron City, we are at WIC in Portage and Medina County on a smaller scale.

Our long term goals is to be full programing in all three counties.

But for that to happen, we need to keep getting in more books and more volunteers helping to get them back out.

Our biggest programing is actually through Summit County WIC, so every child enrolled in WIC gets a bag of up to five books twice a year.

With the goal being, we want them to have a library of approximately 50 books before they start kindergarten.

So we even break those down by age range.

So 0 to 1 year olds get different books, then 2 to 3 year olds get different books and 4 to 5 year olds.

We work really hard to make sure kids are getting age appropriate books to just set them up for the best success possible before they start school.

We are always looking for families whose kids have outgrown their books, and they're ready to pass them on to someone else who loves them.

A great majority of the kids we serve don't have any age appropriate books in the home, so even just getting a couple of books in the home that are age appropriate for them, it's been proven to have huge impacts on their education further down the line.

I'm the only paid employee and I'm only part time.

And then Keith is our executive director, and he's fully volunteer.

And then everything else is done by volunteers.

So we rely heavily on our volunteers to make this happen.

The biggest thing we use our volunteers for is once a month we have book packing events just at our office.

Anyone's welcome to come all ages.

That’s something I love that we do is you can literally have a six month old all the way through and 99 year old, they're welcome to come, we will use your help.

And you take all the books, and you put a sticker on the back of each one and help them pack into the bags.

That will then go over to the WIC clinics.

- I like to bring the kids here to get a glimpse of volunteering, and it's something that we can actually do together.

We've come here for years.

When I was younger, I always loved reading books.

And, if there's a kid out there that wants to read books but doesn't have those books, I want them to be able to have what I had.

- I think it's always good to volunteer.

And this organization, it just helps open your eyes to things that are in the area and different organizations, things, resources, and at home.

I think a lot of us might have books that we don’t really either love well or, you know, know what to do with.

- We are always looking for volunteers.

We pack hundreds and hundreds of bags of books.

And those book packing events, we wouldn't get the books out if we didn't have volunteers helping to do those, because I just can't do them all on my own.

There's something very special about seeing a book you read when you were little and then seeing it again.

It just brings back memories.

So they are fun.

It's fun because your kids can get involved, you know, your whole family can get involved.

- It was something that I could do with the kids and they were young when we started.

They were 3 and 5, maybe.

- These events bring me joy every single time.

I absolutely love them.

We do them all summers at the YMCA, and then when the school year starts, we actually do them in Akron Public Schools.

So those occur on a much larger scale, like here, I brought a couple hundred books, those I iterally bring in a couple thousand books to the school and set them all up and we separate everything by reading levels, so that way when the kids come in, they can tell me I'm in second grade and I can sort of point them where about they'll be reading level wise, because we obviously want them to have books at their reading level.

At the same time, if they're not super excited about the book, they're not going to read it.

So I don't ever say no.

If they see something a little too hard for them and they love it, I love that they love it.

That's a popular series, and I'm going to keep pushing Goosebumps because I love them.

We get asked a lot, what if the parents don't read the books to the kids?

And obviously when we’re giving books to young kids, we can't guarantee that the parents are going to read to them.

But even just having books in the home, it's been proven that that makes a substantial difference as they enter into kindergarten, if they're ready for kindergarten, if they pass third grade reading, if they pass, you know, eighth grade math further down the line.

So even just having the books matters, even if they're not being read to every single day, obviously we encourage that, but, even just babies being able to interact with books, chew on books, that's are all important parts of development.

If you like pictures, I would come over here.

We always get people coming in.

Can I take one for my niece, for my nephew?

And I'm like, yes, I'm never going... Their kids, they'll be like, oh, you have six books.

I'm never going to tell a kid, no, I'm not going to rat them out if they have six books, you want an extra book I think that's a beautiful thing.

So I'm not going to get them in trouble for that.

- When you're reading it like, transports you to a whole different world with like, different people and like you can also learn a lot from it as well.

- It really does encourage language skills.

It's just really good for their growth and development.

- Bright Star Books has been such a special experience for me.

I taught preschool when we lived in Columbus before I moved up here, and when we moved up here, I wanted to be more in the nonprofit world.

I wanted to be able to give back to my community` and Brightstar was sort of like this perfect balance between getting to work with the kids, but also, working with the books, which is something I'm so passionate about.

I firmly believe that every child has a right to have books in the home.

It shouldn't be a special privilege that a child has a book when they're little.

That is a right all children deserve and it's been so fun to sort of grow my own family within Bright Star.

I mean, I was newly married when I started working here, and now I have two kids who come to book packing events with me, and they're able to start to see the importance of books and sharing with others.

So it's been such a neat, just family experience and a chance for everyone to get involved with something that is so important but also very easily overlooked because it's not, you know, obviously everyone needs food, people need shelter.

Those are easy things to say, like, yes, people need that.

Well, books is also a super important thing that kids need, but it's very easy to forget about.

So it is, I think a really fun way to help people with something that I care a lot about.

- Hi, we hope you've been enjoying watching, Let's Read Together, our program about local book banks that are helping children build literacy skills in our community.

Particularly the program that you just watched about Bright Star Books, which serves the community in Summit County, Portage County, and Medina counties.

And I am thrilled to be here today with Keith Seher, who is the co-founder and executive director of Bright Star Books.

Welcome.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Yeah, it's great to be here with you.

And, you know, we just watched the segment featuring the work of your great organization.

But I did have a few more questions I'd like to ask you about your work and sort of what's next for your organization?

- It’s one of my favorite things things to talk about.

- Yes, I imagine so.

So I'll kick it off by asking, you know, could you just tell us a little bit more about how you founded Bright Star Books?

Your son was the inspiration for it, right?

- Exactly.

So, way back in 2014, we were sitting, reading with him one day.

He was only 3 at the time.

And we had recently attended a talk at the University of Akron about early child development and the role that books or lack of books play in, in how, you know, children arrive at kindergarten.

And my wife said to my son, you know, Keaton, other little boys and girls don't have books at home to read like you do.

And he just sort of, well, then we have to give them some.

And it turned a conversation my wife and I had been having from, you know, sort of an academic topic to like, okay, well, yeah, maybe we do have to give them some.

And so we spent the first couple of months sort of looking around at what was happening in our area.

And realized that there are a lot of organizations nationwide that used donated children's books sort of as a untapped resource to try and address the fact that, statistically, something like 60% of low income families don't have age appropriate books at home.

At the same time, there are studies out there that show that the books in the home is one of the single most determining factors of whether children both are ready for school, and then actually their long term academic achievement is very strongly tied to— They talk about the culture of literacy and the way they measure that is is the number of books in the home.

So we realized that this was something that wasn't just like a nice, fun thing to do, although it is also that.

But it was something that was really crucial to giving more families in our area the chance for their children to have successful academic careers, successful lives.

So we started initially, with a pilot program, with a couple of the WIC clinics, a Women in Children's nutritional program in Summit County, which reaches a very large percentage, we think about two thirds of all children living in poverty in any given county in Ohio are being served by WIC.

And we were a little nervous going in there because, you know, it's sort of like a local organization where they're very busy already.

They're serving thousands, thousands of children.

We didn't really know how they were going to take it.

But even after a couple of weeks, it was evidence that actually the bags of books we give, usually about five age appropriate books for each.

We have infant, toddler and pre-K bags that are sort of appropriate for the age of the children receiving them.

Then giving their clients our bags actually improved like, the relationship between, you know, the local county public health organizations and the families that they're reaching and hope to be able to continue to reach.

So we not only were we achieving our goals, we were sort of helping these organizations foster a better relationship with their clients.

So, we knew immediately, okay, this is our model, this is what we're trying to do.

Excuse me, since then, we're currently at five of the six with clinics in Summit County, where we're giving out five bags of books, twice a year.

And our long term goal is to give out say about ten books a year to all the children enrolled in Summit, Portage and Medina counties.

Even at the clinics where we aren't currently don't have the capacity to give out the bags of five books.

We're still giving out one book per visit at the remaining clinic in Summit.

And then the two clinics in Portage and Medina counties.

- That is a huge impact and such a great origin story for your organization.

Thank you for sharing that.

What would you, what do you think our viewers should know?

And you did touch on this a little bit, about the challenges related to child literacy in Summit, Medina and Portage counties in particular.

- Well, like I said, statistically nationwide, book ownership for low income families is low.

And, kindergarten readiness is always a big problem.

I actually, looked at the latest study which showed that in Summit County, 53% of children arriving in kindergarten, what they classify as not on track.

Which means not really ready to sit in the classroom, they are lacking, especially like the pre literacy skills.

So you don't expect children to arrive at kindergarten ready to read, but to know how to hold a book.

Just sort of the ideas of rhyming, the ideas that the words on the page, they don't know what they mean, but they mean something that there's a relationship between the words and the images on the page.

These are the things that kids, or we hope kids know when they arrive at kindergarten.

That makes it possible for them to start into their journey of learning how to read.

So in Summit County, 53% are arriving without these basic skills in Medina— Excuse me, in Portage County, it's 46%, and in Medina County, about 35%.

These represent thousands of kids who aren't at the place we would like them to be, to start school.

And one of the, you know, what we know from studies all over the country is that, these are the same kids that don't have books at home that haven't had the opportunity to start engaging with books and reading, before they arrive at school.

- How can people in the community help Bright Star Books and help to support child literacy in our region?

- Well, our work is actually mainly powered by community donations of new and gently used children's books.

So you can find ways to donate to us on our website.

The main thing I direct people to, if they have the opportunity and the willingness, we have a book drive kit on there.

And so if you can hold book drives for us at schools, businesses, churches anywhere, using your power, reaching into your community, you can help us bring the, you know, hundreds of people's worth of donated children's books, which we can then turn around to give to the thousands of children we serve.

- So one more quick question.

We just have a few seconds left.

What's your favorite children's book and why?

- Oh, that's tough.

Growing up, it was, The Monster at the End of This Book.

I'm not going to do the voice because I can only do it once or twice before my whole voice falls out.

But then growing up with my son, it was probably Elephant and Piggie’s, Waiting Is Not Easy!

- That's a great one.

Well thank you so much Keith.

And we hope that you continue enjoying, Let’s Read Together.

- Now is your chance to support the efforts of our partner organizations by becoming a member of PBS Western Reserve.

You can help improve the literacy of children in our community and support local content like this with a donation today.

Your donation not only strengthens this public media organization, it also gives the gift of books to children.

When you give just $60, you become a member of PBS Western Reserve and we gift two books on your behalf to Kids’ Book Bank, Bright Star Books or PBS Western Reserves Educational Services.

With a donation of $360, 12 books will be donated on your behalf.

A donation of $1,200 means 40 books will be donated.

A child who may not have the opportunity to discover the joy of reading could do so through your generosity and your support of public media.

You can make a difference today by giving at any level.

Call the number on your screen or scan the QR code to donate right now.

- We hope that you enjoyed learning a little bit more about Bright Star Books, which is a book bank that serves Summit, Portage, and Medina counties.

It is just incredible the amount of impact that this organization has with a small team serving a huge region.

And we're just so impressed by the impact that they're having providing books to children in our communities.

And, you know, we PBS Western Reserve, one of the many ways that we have an impact on our community is by telling the stories of organizations like Bright Star Books or the Kids’ Book Bank, so that you, our viewers, are aware of this incredible work happening in our communities and of the challenges related to literacy that a lot of children face and how, you know, getting behind in literacy can impact lifelong learning.

So if you value this work that we do producing these local stories, then we're asking you to step up and support PBS Western Reserve during our book challenge.

When you make your contribution to PBS Western Reserve, your thank you gift turns into something very special that helps out our book bank partners.

Marybeth will describe a little bit more about how that works.

- Yes.

When you donate to PBS Western Reserve, not only are you supporting local content and the things we do here at the station.

Your thank you gift is going to be books that we are going to donate in your honor.

So no CDs, no DVDs.

So your money is even making a larger impact.

For example, if you donate $60, we are going to donate two books in your honor.

If you give us $240, we are going to donate eight books in your honor.

And with the loss of federal funding, a donation to PBS Western Reserve is vital.

And your money's even going further because now you're helping out, you know, the book banks.

We have a goal that we want to donate 2,000 books in the month of September, which is Literacy Awareness Month.

- Yes, it's great to celebrate Literacy Awareness Month with this program, Let's Read Together.

That's all about our book banks in our community here in Northeast Ohio.

And the work that they do to help children.

And so we're asking you to step up, support PBS Western Reserve with a contribution.

Your thank you gift will turn into books that go directly to our book bank partners, and help those children that are in need of books to build their literacy skills.

So it's vitally important that you contribute to PBS Western Reserve right now during our book challenge.

As Marybeth said, your contribution of $240 right now turns into eight books donated.

And now we're going to turn it over to a segment about our educational services team at PBS Western Reserve.

We do a ton of work in the community supporting literacy.

- My name's Holly Cartwright.

I'm the Director of Educational Services, and today we're at the Brimfield Touch-A-Truck.

And this is our first time as PBS's Western Reserve coming out and participating.

And it's been a great turnout with families of children of all ages.

And today we have set up a sensory bin for the kids to play in with different diggers and trucks.

And then we also have UV bracelet making, as well as books that were handing out for kids to take home.

To our region, this is a unique, outreach because we make sure that we're always getting the educational things that we can get into the hands of families, such as books.

We also hand out literature for PBS kids apps and programing that they can then go home and continue that learning.

We try to make sure that we're reaching kids of all ages and backgrounds by choosing wisely that where we're participating at events and making sure that they are accessible and the way that they're promoted and then and the way that they're held so that we can get to all different types of families and all the different areas of our viewing area.

- Our Ed Services Department reaches tons of families even monthly.

- So far this year, we've done 31 programs that has been outreach to afterschool programs, out of school time programing.

And we've reached over 1,400 kids.

- Our Tuesdays for Toddler program roughly brings around 45 families together for about a 45 minute span of time in which we're able to provide books.

And so just the impact of that book being provided to a family is significant.

- He loves to read them.

We read them over and over.

You like all your books, don't you?

- Probably been to, like, eight or ten programs, and we still read the books that we've gotten.

- The book distribution at the end of each event is definitely a way for the kids to take home that aspect of learning.

- I mean, even with the books that we provide, we always make sure that we're right on theme with, like what we're talking about for the day.

And then we always make sure that the books that we do provide are like high quality.

So they always have bright colors that, you know, toddlers are looking for.

And then they have little rhymes, like we're always making sure that they have those elements that way as a caregiver is reading to their little ones, they're able to like, fully engage.

- So we've been doing Tuesdays for Toddlers for a lot of years.

But just recently, in the past three years, I believe we started with PBS hosting for us.

And since then it's taken a huge turn for the better.

The event has upgraded tremendously since then, and they've just brought so much to the event that we haven't had before.

They have the kids dancing, they have them moving, they have them singing songs.

- I think we often see families who benefit from our programs.

Definitely in the sense of us giving out books.

One of the favorite ones is like, it's a question— Ones like, would you rather book.

And like to this day we almost read it like once a week and he loves like making the choice.

- They like to read.

That's a good thing.

- With us being able to provide books, that makes a huge impact on making sure that our kindergartners are ready when they arrive to kindergarten, which is helpful to the teachers.

- Our programing supports learning beyond the classroom because we're involving the parents and the families and the caregivers with that educational piece that they can see what their kids are doing and then hopefully transfer that at home as well.

- Probably been to like 8 or 10 programs, and we still read the books that we've gotten.

- Our department’s job is to make sure that our students are prepared for lifelong learning.

- All of PBS Kids programing has an educational component to it.

It's all been researched and vetted, so you know that when your child is watching this program or playing a digital app or participating in any of our events, they're getting that educational piece that goes along with the fun of learning.

- Every year you're able to incorporate PBS Learning Media, and PBS Western Reserve resources throughout lifelong learning in general.

And so I think it's just very impactful from, whether you have a kindergartner or whether you have a 12th grader.

PBS Western Reserve is always going to be, you know, a great resource to pick up any type of resources that you need.

- We hope that all of our resources that we're using do make a good impact on the communities, in a way that they're seeing the educational value of all the PBS Kids programing and the resources and how they can then utilize that at home and promote literacy and learning.

- Looping into all the everyday activities that they already enjoy doing.

You might have kids who like to paint, well, we're going to talk about the science of color.

If you have kids who are into you just counting, then we can try to find a way to upscale it a little bit, and we can practice skip counting.

We're always going to try to find some type of learning element that they can focus on.

- We definitely just asked a lot of questions out and like asked what things are.

And I feel like it helps from here.

Like they've done experiments here and like the different crafts.

So like we'll just ask a lot of questions at home.

It's probably stem from stuff like this.

- One thing to note about PBS Learning Media, is that it's not just for early education, it’s really for pre-K all the way up through grade 12.

I think we kind of based a lot of our stuff around our viewing area.

And with that, we kind of make sure that we're trying to hit every county that we serve.

And if we're able to do that and provide books and resources, then we've done our job.

- The history and like, everything they've provided, I mean, they have a ton of resources and their education backs, so.

And we just love their programs.

- We love PBS.

- He loves the PBS games.

- PBS Western Reserve, I would say here in this community serves as just that bridge between school and community.

Getting together with other children their same age, learning about something that's tailored to them, and then also getting sent home with the materials that they can learn more at home.

- I think one of the most, memorable benefits that I see often happening, actually, is when the parents are super excited because of the PBS Kids programing that they used to watch as a child.

And then they get so excited for their kids to start watching it with them.

And that's just a great thing to see that, learning is going through the generations.

- I absolutely love my job, and I love the impact that it's making.

One thing that, you know, I grew up on PBS and so now that, like, I'm older and I didn't recognize then, because of my young age, the impact that it had on me.

But now being able to be on the opposite side of things, it's definitely rewarding.

- We hope you've been enjoying, Let's Read Together, our program about book banks and supporting the literacy of the children in our communities.

In this last segment, you learned a little bit more about our Educational Services team at PBS Western Reserve.

I am so excited to be joined by Holly Cartwright, who is our chief Education officer at PBS Western Reserve, and she manages our entire educational services program and team.

Thanks for being here, Holly.

- Thank you Natalie, it's nice to be here.

- So I have a few questions for you to expand upon what everyone learned about in the program.

So I'll kick it off by asking you to describe the educational services that your team provides to the community sort of broadly.

And then what's your current focus?

- So the educational department does quite a few things.

We do provide educator development, professional development for teachers.

We create multimedia series, videos that are educationally based, that can be used in the classroom, that can also be used, for caregivers and parents at home.

We do a lot of educational outreach, and that tends to be our focus right now out of school time and hoping to bridge some of that learning that's taking place in the school into, you know, communities at home.

- Yes.

That's great.

Thank you.

Can you describe the impact of the work that you do in the community through the educational services to you?

Maybe just an example or two of moments when you sort of realized, wow we're really having an impact.

- Yeah, those are the best parts of the day when you're out there in the community, and the work that you do behind the scenes is finally making a difference in matters.

Because we are out in the community, we get to see a lot of the same kids and families, and so that's always nice to hear from them.

We recently did a program where the children planted seeds and then they came back, a month later, and one little boy was so excited to show us he had a picture of his seed that had sprouted.

And so, you know, those kinds of things, it's like, oh, that learning is continuing in the home even after, you know, our program is over.

So we love to see things like that.

And we've gotten really good feedback from our partnerships that we've collaborated with throughout the community in the programs that we provide.

And we always try to have books that we can pass out whenever possible.

And so, parents are very, you know, pleased to have that opportunity to take home a book and continue that learning at home.

- Yeah.

That's so important.

Could you talk about some of the other areas of our region that you've served or that you're working on, you know, expanding service to that weren't featured in the program that we just saw?

- Yes.

So we serve eight counties in Northeast Ohio, and we try to get to all corners, which can be difficult at times with a smaller, you know, crew.

But we do, a lot of work, now in Warren, Trumbull County, in that area.

Mahoning, we're reaching Columbiana.

So we're excited to get in some schools out there and some library programs, as well as all the way out into Wayne County.

But we're trying to make sure we balance all of that because we do have such a large area to reach.

Yeah, that's true, but you and your team do an excellent job.

And I know you've been working to expand, so that's very important.

You know, we just saw a sample of the work in the program that your team does in the community.

Can you take us through how your team prepares for these sorts of community initiatives and events and programs?

- Yeah.

So a lot of thought goes into everything that we're doing.

And we try to first find out, you know, what is it that the community needs or the district of the schools need.

And build from there, because we want it to be meaningful and useful, you know, in the work that we're doing and whatever, you know, everyone else's part plays with it.

So we try to find out what's the need and then make sure we are addressing that in the most meaningful, impactful way that we can.

A lot of the the work we want to support was happening in the school.

If this is what's going on in the community, how can we bridge that gap?

So what can we give to parents and caregivers that's going to be fun and engaging for them to do with their child, not just something to give to their child.

So our programs are very, hands on, engaging.

We always put the child first and think about, you know, what is going to be the best way for them to learn this.

Most of the time it's through play.

So we're often building programs that look like kids are just playing.

But a lot of it is, you know, the learning is built in there.

And then of course, we try to put a literacy piece in there and have a read aloud whenever we can, because books are such a great way for the kids to take that information and process it.

And then if we can get the books in their hands before they leave and help, you know, make that continue learning— Continue that learning as it goes on at home as well.

- Right.

Thank you.

Final question.

What is your favorite children’s book and why?

- So I probably couldn't narrow it down to one book, but I do really like the Eric Carle books in general.

They're so great for the early learning.

There's repetition and the colors.

It really helps kids with prediction, and they're just super fun to read out loud with children and super engaging.

So anything by Eric Carle.

- Yeah, those are some of my favorites too.

Well, thank you so much, Holly.

It was great to talk with you.

And we hope that you've enjoyed this program and learning about PBS Western Reserve and the book banks in our region and the impact they have.

- Now is your chance to support the efforts of our partner organizations by becoming a member of PBS Western Reserve.

You can help improve the literacy of children in our community and support local content like this with a donation today.

Your donation not only strengthens this public media organization, it also gives the gift of books to children.

When you give just $60, you become a member of PBS Western Reserve and we gift two books on your behalf to Kids’ Book Bank, Bright Star Books or PBS Western Reserves Educational Services.

With a donation of $360, 12 books will be donated on your behalf.

A donation of $1,200 means 40 books will be donated.

A child who may not have the opportunity to discover the joy of reading could do so through your generosity, and you'll support public media.

You can make a difference today by giving it any level.

Call the number on your screen or scan the QR code to donate right now.

- We hope you've enjoyed learning a little bit more about PBS Western Reserves Educational Services team, and the work that we do to serve thousands of children and families and educators throughout Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

You know, it's— Many people that watch programing on PBS Western Reserve might not even know that we have an educational services team that directly serves children and families with educational programing in our communities.

So we're happy to share a little bit more about that with you.

So if you are, you know, moved to contribute or to want to support this educational services work, we're asking you to make a contribution to PBS Western Reserve, right now during our book challenge.

We're here sharing this local program with you that's all about the work of book banks and organizations like PBS Western Reserve that are focused on literacy and supporting children in our communities.

So when you make a contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now, we have a very special thank you gift that goes to help our partners during this time.

Marybeth will describe a little bit more about that.

- Yeah, when you make a donation to PBS Western Reserve instead of getting a CD, DVD or a mug, what you're doing is you are helping us help the book banks.

So, for example, if you were to donate $120, we would donate in your honor four books to these organizations.

If you want to donate $240, we would donate eight books in your honor to these organizations.

So the donation you make to us goes even further.

And with the federal funding that we have lost, donations to PBS Western Reserve are extremely important.

So you can feel good about helping us continue the local content and are just our regular content for PBS and helping out, helping us help the book banks.

Yes.

- Yes.

During September, which is Literacy Awareness Month and our book challenge, we have a goal of donating 2,000 books to our book bank partners and to our educational services efforts at PBS Western Reserve.

So when you make that contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now, and you select the thank you gift of books, you'll be helping us to reach that 2,000 goal.

We've seen a great outpouring of support from our community so far during this campaign, and we're asking you to please join your neighbors in supporting the book challenge and helping to donate 2,000 books to our community.

So when you make that contribution to PBS Western Reserve, your thank you gift of books will help us get there.

Thank you so much for watching.

Let's read together right here on PBS Western Reserve.