Storybridge keeps giving, working so each child has a chance to read at home

Non-profit organization Storybridge provides elementary students across Amarillo with access to new and used books, which they can choose from and take home for free. Storybridge has given out more than 190,000 books since its creation five years ago.

According to Executive Director Chandra Perkins, Storybridge began in the summer of 2016 after Perkins and her two sons went to a park and gave away books to some of the local children.

“We found eight kids at the park that day. I read a quick book to them and told them that we had a book for each of them to keep. They each picked one, and they were just really sweet and grateful, and I felt really good about it, until I got a block away, driving home. I just had this moment where it dawned on me that we were bringing 90 books or so, back to sit in my garage,” Perkins said.

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Perkins spoke about how she created the nonprofit after this realization and understanding that many children here and in the surrounding areas don’t have the opportunity to have books to read at home.

“I knew how many of our students struggled with basic needs — food, clothing, medical care, housing — and realized that if you're struggling with basic needs like that, you don’t have a home library,” Perkins said.

“They're not being read to at home, because there is no money for books at home. There is no margin in the lives of those that are dealing with poverty for children's books,” she added.

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Perkins said that today, the organization serves two needs for Amarillo. They allow children access to books for free, which the children get to choose for themselves, and they provide a way for individuals who have children's books to give them a second life.

Storybridge collects gently used children's books for newborns all the way up through elementary school to fifth grade. They host book fairs in the elementary schools throughout the city, which allows the children to pick books of their choice. Pre-K through first-grade students are able to take home eight books, and second-grader through fifth-graders are allowed to take home seven books of their choice.

“One of our big values is the choice of the child, so when we come to their school or some other community event where we give some free books away, it is always the child's choice. We don’t prepackage books and assume their books,” Perkins said.

This year, Storybridge is serving every Title 1 elementary school in Amarillo that is over 80% economically disadvantaged, for total of 17 schools. Perkins said that about every week, they are hosting a book fair at an elementary school, where they deliver thousands of books for the children to choose from. Books are divided by category and grade level and displayed for children, who can then pick the ones they want to read.

“It focuses on making a family collection of books,” said Pam Barrett, director of library services for the Amarillo Independent School District.

“It’s now been around long enough where the siblings have gotten to get free books, and now the younger siblings are getting to take home books of their own. Kids that may not have had a library collection at their home are now starting a family collection of books,” Barrett said.

The non-profit has now expanded into include 22 Little Free Libraries in the area, giving out approximately 1,000 books a month through the small covered book cases. These little libraries are sponsored by an individual or organization and then placed in an under-resourced area in the city, to allow the children more access to books.

“These kids may not be getting to bookstores very often if ever, so we drive around every week, and we keep those little free libraries full, so the kids in the neighborhood know that these boxes always have books in them, and they always have access to free literacy,” Perkins said.

The non-profit has also partnered with the Amarillo Public Library, increasing a program called Born to Read 806, in which the organization purchases books to gift to newborns and gifts them to the child at the hospital. Perkins said that the alliance was created to support both parents and the newborn with educational encouragement for the child.

Earlier this year, in March, the organization also began working with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which allows any child from birth to age 5 in both Potter and Randall counties to enroll in the program and receive a free book in the mail each month. Through Imagination Library, Storybridge is currently serving more than 2,600 kids locally and is able to cover the cost of each child's enrollment into the program from donations. According to Perkins, $25 provides a child with a years' worth of books, and Storybridge hopes to have 10,000 kids from Potter and Randall counties enroll in the program.

“Because education is such an equalizer, we can empower that generation that hasn’t even started school yet to be more successful if we can invest in their literacy at home before they begin school,” Perkins said.

Individuals can donate to Storybridge by visiting their website at https://www.storybridgeama.org and visiting their "Ways to Help" tab.

The organization has gained 92% of their capital campaign to pay for a permanent location, where the children's book bank will be located, and it is looking forward to beginning that adventure in 2022.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Nonprofit Storybridge helps elementary children create home libraries