Our speaker, Sarna Goldenberg, is the Director of Marketing and Communications for Bernie's Book Bank. BBB started in 2009 and in that time they have distributed nearly 20 million books! BBB distributes free quality children's books to significantly increase book ownership among infants, toddlers and school aged children mainly throughout the Lake, Cook and McHenry counties. They partner with schools and other organizations where there is a need - usually those students getting reduced or free lunches. They also work with area food banks. Even during the pandemic, without volunteers, BBB found new distribution resources and managed to distribute 1.7 million books in 2020! The organization currently has 30 employees - about half are fulltime. They are currently closed to volunteers at this time but hope to have our Club and the Interact students help out again very soon. In the meantime, they are accepting donations of new and gently used children's books for children from birth to 6th grade. They cannot accept reference and textbooks or coloring books. If monetary donations are more your thing, every $12 provides 12 books for an under-served child. This presentation was a great dovetail to Rich Rosen's about literacy last month. -mb |