In May, our district's Social Equity Task Force and the Rotary Club of Needham held an online Diversity Book Fair. This was a coordinated effort with seven elementary schools in Needham, to help ensure that local children could see themselves in a more diverse set books that they read in their classrooms at school.
The online Book Fair allowed parents and the community to purchase books written by and/or about minority populations, The books are for the elementary school classrooms and the school libraries. Learn more at DiversityBookFair.com.
Supplying the books was the Frugal Bookstore, a community bookstore located in Roxbury, with a passion for promoting literacy within our children, teens and adults. They have great books - and getting more all the time - at incredible prices. The Needham club's partnership with the Frugal Bookstore was definitely instrumental in our success. In addition, Needham's Parent Teacher Councils an Superintendent of Schools office were very helpful in getting the word out.
Each school was given $500 to spend on books for classes that got less participation than others. With seven elementary schools, that was a total of $3,500. We were able to get $2,600 in sponsorships, to bring the club’s investment down to $900.
To find out how to run this sort of book fair in your community, contact Needham Rotarian Bill Paulson at 781-929-2453.
For comments, questions or technical issues, contact us at rotaryd7910@gmail.com.