Our Solution:​

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This is a free book give-away program that enlists the volunteer time of former teachers and

librarians who select and distribute free books to children, caregivers and teachers. High

interest, high quality books are selected from places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army, as

well as from donations. The books include novels, easy readers, baby books, and informational

texts, hardcover and paperback. In many cases, the books would be pulped if we didn’t

purchase them. Instead of discarding perfectly good books we help them find homes with

deserving children and teachers.

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Key Accomplishments:​

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We began as a Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz program in 2009 giving books to elementary

schools in Watsonville, Live Oak, and Santa Cruz. By 2010, we had received $2000 in donations

and distributed about 20,000 books. In 2014, the program restarted as a tax-exempt non-profit

giving free books to the community. As of 2024, we have put over a quarter of a million free

books in the hands of children, caregivers and teachers.

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We recently partnered with the UCSC MA/Credential program to provide books to new

teachers who need books for their classroom libraries. So far, we have given 1763 books to new

teachers. We also gave 3000 books to a Lahaina school whose library was destroyed in the fire

and provided books to doctors for the Reach Out and Read program. In addition, we have sent

books to orphanages in Africa through the Educating Tanzania Foundation.

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The Difference We Make:​

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Books are so important to a child’s literacy development. Access to books and a rich reading

environment has been shown to increase academic achievement, vocabulary development,

story-telling abilities, and the development of children’s understanding of the world.

Researchers found that 60% of the kindergartners in American schools designated as “low

achieving” did not own a single book. Other studies indicate that, regardless of how many

books a family already has, each addition to the home library helps children do better in school.

In fact, books in the home are the single biggest indicator of academic success — surpassing

income, parents’ education, family composition, and all other factors. In recognition of these

facts, the American Academy of Pediatrics has identified low literacy as a health issue.

We focus on giving free books to families, teachers and school librarians in areas with large

populations of low-income or disadvantaged students. We also give books to pediatric clinics,

to child-centered non-profit organizations, and to little free libraries. And, we provide books to

teachers, particularly beginning and preservice teachers, for their use in classrooms.

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Goals and Dreams:​

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We would like to grow our organization to be able to distribute even more books to our

community. We are currently limited by the space we have to store books, and the number of

books we can obtain with our limited resources. Even used books are becoming more

expensive, and it is hard to find used bilingual books, Spanish books and graphic novels. These

books are in high demand, and it would be great to be able to obtain more of these types of

books.

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Our rental space is our second largest expense, and the rent is increasing each year. Our dream

would be to obtain a permanent home for our operations, with sufficient room to store and

process more books. A space where we could be open to the public, especially teachers,

occasionally would be ideal. We would also like to be able to purchase book bags and bookmarks to give away with the

books, and to enhance the reach of our organization to underserved populations by increasing

the number of volunteers.