Birthday Books promotes love of reading in county's Title I schools

Larry Waligora, president of Columbia Town Center Rotary, and Marianne Warner, local director for the Birthday Books Project in Baltimore City and several surrounding counties including Howard County, briefed Columbia-Patuxent Rotarians on the details as guest speakers at a recent meeting.

Birthday Books provides free, high-quality books to celebrate the birthdays of students attending Title I schools. A partner school gets gift books for all students each year. School staff members set up a display area, recognize birthdays on the morning announcements, and give books to their birthday students.

Town Center Rotary currently supports the project at three elementary schools: Running Brook, Bryant Woods and Stevens Forest. Next fall, Elkridge Rotary will sponsor two elementaries, Deep Run and Ducketts Lane, while Ellicott City Rotary begins support for Phelps Luck Elementary. These are all Title I schools with a high percentage of students on free and reduced meals programs. Howard County has at least 12 elementary schools classified as Title One schools.

Marianne emphasized that Birthday Books go to all of a school’s students. “There is powerful research showing that you can help kids to read better, to read longer, to read with more enthusiasm, to read more of a range of books, to even excel in all their school subjects, simply by giving them a book to take home and keep, because they can pour over it. They can read it again and again. They can take pride in it. They can read it to a younger sibling,” she said. “The gift of a book promotes crucial lifetime literacy, while receiving the book at school offers a great way to reinforce the child's positive school experience.”

Birthday Books is a nonprofit funded through donations from individuals and organizations. Donations are used only to purchase and ship books going to children. Marianne said all books are high quality, mostly hardcover, and can be ordered online from special vendors at an average discounted cost of $2 each, well below their cover prices of $10 to $20.

Her “reachable goal” is to have four of the Columbia area Rotary Clubs each support an average of three schools. Average cost per club would be about $3,000 a year, but the result would be a free annual Birthday Book for each of the more than 6,000 students attending a Title I elementary in Howard County.

She has an even bigger national goal in mind. “We have an opportunity to lead the way. This is something that every one of the more than 4,000 Title I elementary schools in the country really needs, because we have a huge gap between the more economically disadvantaged students and the more advanced students,” she explained. “If the 1,450 Rotary Clubs nationwide each supported three schools, up to two million children would be reached. And that is a real opportunity that can make a change nationwide.”

At the conclusion of her remarks, Columbia-Patuxent Rotary agreed to sponsor the program at Talbott Springs Elementary, Cradlerock Elementary and Guilford Elementary. Columbia-Patuxent is the largest and most active of Howard County’s seven Rotary clubs.