PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Free books will be available this week for Pre-K through 12th grade students this week at four Palm Beach County locations.
The giveaway is sponsored by the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association, Florida’s Young Remarkable Educators, the Florida Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association through a non-profit organization called First Book.
Each child can get up to two free books from March 22-28 during regular business hours at the four distribution locations.
Those include:
PB Tax & Insurance, 2790 N. Military Trail Suite 7, West Palm Beach
Pete’s Place, 6774 Forest Hill Blvd., Greenacres
Tropical Smoothie, 6645 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach
Student Athletic Center, 915 S. Main St., Belle Glade
President of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association Justin Katz says the effort is especially important during this current phase of education, when so many students are struggling.
"We just figured during a time when COVID has taken its toll on everyone’s learning opportunities, why not try to make sure kids have more access to reading materials in their free time, and hopefully during the summer they’ll take the opportunity to read more and catch up and make sure they’re prepared as school gets back to normal next year," said Katz.
"The education they’ve been receiving obviously has not been traditional, a lot of it has been virtual, even if they are in school, some of their classmates are virtual so their teachers are trying to do simultaneous teaching," said Katz. "Any extracurricular-type academic practice they can get like reading not only strengthens their view of reading and how much they enjoy it, but just gives them some academic time in their free time."
Katz says this is not the first time they have partnered with First Book for a giveaway but hopes to make it a regular trend moving forward, hosting similar giveaways multiple times a year.
Started in 1992, First Book has distributed more than 185 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income communities in more than 30 countries. First Book currently reaches an average of 5 million children every year.