craigdailypress.com

Craig — Friends of Moffat County Education has a lofty goal and less than one month to accomplish it.

The group kicks off the second year of its book project next week. The goal is to collect 13,000 books by April 13 to send home over the summer with kindergarten through fifth-grade students. The hope is that the books will encourage reading during non-school months.

If the book project meets its goal, it should be able to send 10 books home with every age-eligible student. But project organizers need help.

Friends of Moffat County Education member Jeremy Browning said it takes a large amount of community involvement to gather 13,000 books in about four weeks. Browning said private donations, drop-offs and purchasing books in bulk made the drive a success last year.

The project began as a kick-off initiative for Friends of Moffat County Education, a community group dedicated to improving and supporting education locally.

“We wanted to deliver real results that were education based,” Browning said. “It was something we could do with our limited resources that was a real research- and science-based initiative.”

Browning said the group found research showing that kids who have books to take home with them over the summer tend to retain more of what they learned from the previous school year.

There are tubs to drop off books off Sandrock, East, Sunset and Ridgeview elementary schools, Craig Middle School and Moffat County High School.

Volunteers and Friends of Moffat County Education members will pick up tubs April 13 and spend about a month sorting books according to grade level. The books will be ready to be sent home with students the week of May 13.

“We make sure books are geared toward the appropriate age level. There are teachers on the board and lots of volunteers who help,” Browning said. “We sorted books like mad for days on end last year.”

This year, Browning said Friends of Moffat County Education hopes students who have read their books from last summer will bring them back to be passed down to others this summer.

“We’re really thankful for the community involvement and help from other local nonprofits as well as cash donations,” Browning said. “All of that helps make this work. We hope as we grow we can do more things like this.”

Donated books should be gently used and age appropriate for kindergarten through fifth-grade students. For more information, call 970-620-4155.

Darian Warden can be reached at 875-1793 or dwarden@craigdailypress.com