Jun. 14, 2021 -- The district’s media ancillaries have always known how important it is for children to have their own home libraries. But owning their own books became even more necessary during the extended period of remote learning over the past year-and-a-half. Luckily, the ancillaries had access to an entire bank of books: the Cleveland Kids Book Bank, to be exact.
Media ancillaries from the district’s elementary school buildings had been
volunteering at the Book Bank every other month prior to the shutdown. But they were still able to access books for distribution. In fact, they put 13,306 books into the hands of district students in 2020-21.
They had to be creative while students were exclusively learning from home and gave out books during meal pick-ups, in Little Free Libraries on or near school properties, with the Farmers to Families or Food Market distributions, and at school supply pick-up days.
Noble’s Yvonne Wallace put together a shopping basket full of free books in the lobby of Zagara’s Marketplace and Fairfax’s Michael Spears made home deliveries throughout the neighborhoods.
This ongoing commitment to family literacy and at-home learning was also supported by Boulevard’s Brandi Wise, Canterbury’s Laurie Wilson, Gearity’s Laurie Hill, Oxford’s Amnea Abu-Saleh and Rox El’s Michele Alexander.