A week or so ago I told you about my love for reading and how I am so proud of myself for seemingly to have passed on that love to my children.  But I don’t want to stop there and I don’t want to let kids fall through the cracks.  So I happily sent out notices to my neighborhood and held my Nickelodeon SIMPLE Service Book Drive on a rainy day when the football game of the year was on!  I did not care.  I glued myself to the television when waiting on donations and then went to greet generous neighbors when they came by! Be sure to pick up the Dora the Gymnast book at your local Walmart when you see it!  It would be a great book to donate and/ or keep a copy to read to your kids!

Read all about why I wanted so badly to help this month and how you can continue to help me throughout the month!

Here is the thing.  My community has a lot of young mothers.  A lot of the time, young moms do not have a lot of disposable income and so a small luxury – like a book – can be very hard to come by.  So I asked around to find out which organizations could help the most people and came up with a ton.  Church’s, Boys and Girls Clubs and other organizations came up on the list. 

But I decided that the organization that would get the donations would be the Tomball Pregnancy Center.  I have donated to them before and they have been amazingly thankful.  In addition, most of the people that I knew that were coming to the Big Help Book  had little children.  So I knew that I would be collecting some books for the younger set.  So, I figured, the kids that would benefit the most from toddler and young children books would be the kids of these moms that are working hard to buy diapers and wish that they could also by books!

SO many of my neighbors warmed my heart with their generous donations.  In fact, I have an email box of so many more bringing books this afternoon that I decided to head to the Tomball Pregnancy Center tomorrow instead of today as originally planned.  One – I want the most books I can gather and a lot of people were at the game and Two – two of my three daughters are home tomorrow and I want them to experience the joy of giving to those who are not as blessed as they are with books galore!

I will come back later and show you photos of my donations but I wanted to show you the book drive to get your interests in helping me tweaked!  I will collect books throughout October to donate during the month.  I ask that YOU, my trusty readers, help me spread the word about this amazing cause and what it can mean for that child who has not opened a book in their home in years!  My goal is to have – between my readers and myself - donated 1000 books this month!  I know, I know…  these things tend to fizzle out and people forget.  BUT, if we take  2 seconds to pick up that new book at the store or grab several off of our kids shelves to pass on to others, we can do this!  It takes little effort but delivers HUGE rewards!

If you help me, let me know and I will brag all over the net about you!

Champions for Kids has been a big part of my year this year.  From donating Disney Christmas Stockings to Having a Sports Drive with Odwalla, I have enjoyed taking the time to do something SIMPLE that has such a large impact!  Join me and millions of others as we march toward their goal of reaching 20 million by 2020.  With the holidays coming up this is a GREAT WAY for you to give back and to help your kids understand the process and how rewarding it can be!’

 I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids. #NickCFK #CBias.  All writings and opinions are my own.  Please see my Disclosure Statement for more information.

We are BIG readers in this house.  I fell in love with books early and am adamant about passing that love onto my kids.  They really have no choice in the matter, I will admit.  Luckily, they are loving books as much as I did.  So this months SIMPLE SERVICE Project from Champions for Kids asking us to have a Nickelodeon Big Help Book Drive is right up our alley!

Check out the video below to see how important literacy is and why we need these drives so badly:

This project resonates with me on so many levels that I have to get active and get it done and try to make it as awesome as it can be!

First because as a child, I did not have that many books.  I had the library and some here and there but it was not until I was adopted at age 8 that my parents introduced me to the amazing world of books.  And for the first time, to bedtime stories.  From Ramona to Holly Hobby to Strawberry Shortcake to Little House on the Prarie, I read and escaped and pretended and learned.  Books helped me learn manners, how to have and keep a friend, how to be appreciative of others and how to write.  I may not be the best at any of those things but they are skills I remember reading about and carry to this very day.

These days, curling up with a good book is a luxury that I have to save for the occasional late night when my work is done.  But when I get to I almost never want to put the book down.  I have always vowed to make reading as important a part of my children’s lives as it is to mine.

So far, I seem to be succeeding.  My 1st grader is almost reading at a 2nd grade level and we are in the first month of school.  And my 4 year old is picking up words and starting to spend a lot of time during the day flipping though books – mostly Dora but I will take it.  My 3 year old even gets a book and pretends to read it to herself at night.

They read to each other, their stuffed animals, their Barbie’s and to me.  And it warms my heart to know that they will always have books as a fall back when life gets hard, they need to escape or they need to learn something.  I am very, VERY proud of my girls.

Secondly, this project is perfect for my Nickelodeon loving kids.  You guys know that I write about the movies all the time and always rave how much my girls like them.  The same enthusiasm spills over into their book selection, as well.  If the book has Dora, Spongebob or any other Nickelodeon character on it, we ‘have to get it‘.  And I will always try to find the money for them… as you can see by the sampling of Nickelodeon books we own now!

We love Dora so much, in fact, that we have Dora sheets, backpacks, lunch kits, clothing, purses and on and on and on.  So to get my kids excited about collecting books for a Nickelodeon Big Help Book Drive is easy.

Thirdly, I am S H O C K E D at how many children in this country not only don’t read at their grade level, but don’t even have access to books in their home.  I should not be surprised, I came from one of those homes, but I guess I had hoped that as I reach 40, that problem had been eliminated.  So anything – anything – at all I can do to get books in the hands of kids who don’t have them, I will do with pride, determination and a hopeful heart!

Thus turns me to the SIMPLE Service Project this month and my desire to encourage YOU to join ME in collecting and donating books for your community!  I would love to say that the readers of A Day in Motherhood single handily donated 1000 books around the country.  I know it is a stretch, I am aware.  People get busy, people forget, life happens.  But that is also what has happened to these kids who do not have books to access.

People got busy.

People forgot.

Life got busy.

Let’s make this the ONE TIME that we made  this what we got busy with!  Gather your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, your local Church’s… anyone, and ask them to donate new or gently used books during the month of October to those who need them most.  Be ONE IN A MILLION with Champions for Kids to try to help 20 million kids by 2020.  And then come back and tell me what you did, share your photos and tell me your story.  I will create a montage of the people who donated and do a post with you all included to shout from the blogosphere that WE did something amazing together this month!  And that countless children have a bedtime story for the first time in their lives.  

Just as I did 32 years ago.

If you participate, head over to Champions for Kids and tell them how awesome and amazing you are to help the kids that you do not even know.  Report your work in less than 5 minutes to their story page!  Who knows, maybe you’ll be highlighted and have bragging rights for life!

To start my drive, I headed to Walmart to gather some new books, Dora and Nickelodeon included, to start my box.  I really wanted the NEW Dora the Gymnast book to add to my collection but neither of the Walmart’s I went to had it yet!  Look at yours for the display that will have it in most of the stores!  In the meantime, my kids will decorate the box and we will get started spreading the word and asking people to be a part of something that could change a child’s life.  See my entire shop in my Google + Story below:

It is just a book to you and me.  But to them – the kids – it is a whole new world of possibility.  And every child should have possibilities!

Come back in a few weeks and see how my Nickelodeon Big Book Drive went!  I am going to try to donate to 2 places that really need them so I need to get to work!  I hope you are inspired and do the same!

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I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids. #NickCFK #CBias.  All writings and opinions are my own.  Please see my Disclosure Statement for more information.