Last week, I told you about how I was collecting children’s books to donate as part of a Champions For Kids SIMPLE Service Project: Nickelodeon Big Help Book Drive. I am excited to report that I was able to donate 107 books!! YAY! Here are the cupcakes I made to give to those who donated books. I made the cupcake toppers using old book pages with a simple “Thanks!” on top. For the frosting, I decided to try making Swiss meringue buttercream. I am delighted with how everything turned out!
A little over a week ago, I went shopping with Vanessa to buy some new books to add to the donation. Although we were unable to find the new Dora the Gymnast book, we were able to find this fun Dora’s Fantastic Gymnastics Event.
We purchased 6 Nickelodeon books from Walmart including 4 Dora the Explorer books. Four additional Nickelodeon books were donated.
Here are the stacks of donated books. It doesn’t look like that many but between the books in the previous photo and the ones stacked here there are 107 books! The books range from board books, to American Girl books, to Barbie books, to non-fiction books. I spotted Amelia Bedelia, Clifford, Thomas the Tank Engine, Little Critter and Arthur. There are books about Christmas, karate and colors. These books are going to appeal to a wide range of children and that is a fantastic thing! One of the best way to get kids interested in books is to find books that they are interested in. Vanessa and Zack went through a long phase of reading only non-fiction books. They said they didn’t like it when turtles could talk or buses had faces in fiction books. If I would’ve tried to make them get fiction books, it wouldn’t have gone well. Instead we scoured the libraries for books about dogs, cats, lizards, sharks, tornadoes, science, how things works, etc. One of the libraries we frequented had a fairly large section of non-fiction books for kids but we also found a lot of books in the adult non-fiction section.
I did a little research and found that fourth grade children Minnesota are doing better than the national public on their reading but those number are dropping! I really wanted to keep the book donation in our community. I live in a small town so the kids that I am helping out are the kids in my neighborhood and the kids that my kids go to school with. We love reading and to be able to share that with others is a gift!
We brought our donation to the community education building for our district. Before dropping off the books, I called to make sure that a donation would be acceptable. They were delighted to have a donation of books. The woman I spoke to said there are many different locations that will benefit from the donation. They plan to spread the books out to as many places as they can from preschool, to before/after school care and to the elementary school!
How are the children in your community doing with reading? Look around your home to see what books aren’t being used! The next time you are out shopping, pick up a book from the store. Donate as many books as you can to help our children have bright futures! They need to know how to read to be successful in school and in their lives and together we can make a difference! Once you’ve made a donation, stop by the Champion For Kids website and fill out a brief form telling them about your donation. Your donation report will help Champions For Kids reach their goal to mobilize 20 million people by 2020!
Aeldra Robinson says
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Christy Gossett says
107 books? That’s amazing and I’m sure they will do so much good for the kids in your community! Great job!
Tonia L says
Thanks Christy! It was a fun project for us!
Betsy says
That’s a wonderful thing that you did! And your cupcakes are adorable. I will most definitely be stealing your frosting idea, and toppers.
Tonia L says
Thanks Betsy! I’ve been wanting to try this frosting for a long time and finally got around to it!
SydneyDunn_CB says
Your posts never cease to amaze me Tonia! Beautiful CFK post!
SydneyDunn_CB says
Your posts never cease to amaze me Tonia! Beautiful CFK post!
Tonia L says
Awww…thank Sydney!
John Andrews says
This is great! Thanks for sharing Tonia!
Tonia L says
Thanks John! My whole family loves to read so this was a great opportunity to share that love with others!
Lyuba @ Will Cook For Smiles says
That is awesome!! Great job 🙂
Tonia L says
Thanks Lyuba! We sure enjoyed it!