Race to 500,000 book drive with Orion Jean (left)

Literacy Achieves is hosting a children’s book drive Saturday, and their goal is to collect and distribute 5,000 new and gently used books for kids in their programs. The nonprofit works to equip non-English speaking adults and their young children with English literacy and life skills to promote self-sufficiency and overall well-being.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

The book drive is in conjunction the “Race to 500,000 Books” campaign currently being hosted by another nonprofit, Race to Kindness. The larger effort was started by Orion Jean, a Fort Worth 11-year-old who says his generation sees the problems happening in the world and wants to do something to solve them.

“I can’t do this by myself, and I don’t want to. I want to have the support of people from all over the country,” says Jean. “Studies show that kids who have books in their home do better than kids without books. So, I know that books have changed my life and changed the lives of so many other kids around the world.”

Literacy Achieves will host a bookmark station and other activities for children Saturday. Books will be distributed directly to families during the event.

If you’d like to help, books may be dropped at Literacy Achieves’ Vickery Meadow campus, 6329 Ridgecrest, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Ideal selections would be a variety of fiction and nonfiction aimed at ages 0-5 years old. You may also donate online here.