The Ohio Federation of Teachers is partnering with several local organizations to give away thousands of free books to parents, guardians and children.
The pallets carrying thousands of books began rolling in Tuesday to St. Stephen's Community House for the 'Reading Opens the World' Family Literacy book fair. Volunteers will spend the next few days unpacking and sorting the different titles.
Lesley Getzinger of the American Federation of Teachers said it is a part of an effort launched by the American Federation of Teachers late last year to give teachers and school staffers the tools they need to help students excel in reading.
"You know, for the past two years, it's been a real hardship on everybody. And we just wanted to have all the support and resources we could to help support reading at home, family literacy, and making learning and reading fun and something that kids want to do, " Getzinger said.
She said bringing 40,000 books to any community is a real undertaking.
"We couldn't do this without our partner First Book, which is a nonprofit organization that makes these books available at deep discounts, but we also couldn't do this without the local support of the Ohio Federation of Teachers and St. Stephen's Community House, " said Getzinger, who is a staffer for with the AFT.
Getzinger said there are a lot of resources out there to help parents trying to get their children to read.
"I encourage people to go to aft.org/read. You'll also find some literacy information there for families, and some tips and tools for families to encourage their kids to read at home and make it easier for parents to help their kids become strong readers, " she said.
The book fair will be held on Saturday, February 26th from 12 to 3 at St. Stephen's Community House on 1500 E. 17th Avenue in Columbus.
