February 1, 2024
Dear Friend,
How do you measure the success of a Book Harvest event? With joy, a feeling of community, and of course: BOOKS! And by all of those measures, our 13th annual Dream Big Book Drive and Community Celebration broke records.
A stunning 63,636 children's books were donated during the entirety of our Dream Big Book Drive, which ran from December through January – 20,435 of those were donated in just three hours during our MLK Day celebration on January 15!
Over 2,000 of you braved the chilly air and joined us at Durham's Golden Belt Campus on MLK Day to celebrate big dreams and the power of community. Plus, families harvested 1,995 children's books that day to take home and keep forever, building their home libraries. It was an afternoon of joy and connection, of book-loving and book-sharing, and of observation and remembrance of Dr. King’s big dream: justice and  opportunity for every child on this earth.
Thank you for showing up on MLK Day, for participating in our 13th annual Dream Big Book Drive, and for being part of our growing community. We are so grateful that so many of you are standing alongside us as we pursue literacy and justice for all!
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With gratitude and big dreams,
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Ginger Young,
Founder and CEO
Book Harvest
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Tabitha Blackwell,
Executive Director
Book Harvest Durham |
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P.S. You can view our 2024 Dream Big Final Report here – including our 48 wonderful sponsors!
P.P.S. It wasn't just Dream Big that dazzled us. Our just-completed 2023 End of Year Appeal also blew us away: 378 Book Harvest friends donated a total of $205,901. Wow! These funds will translate into hundreds of home libraries, thousands of bedtime stories, and countless new favorite books. Thank you to all who gave!
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Book Harvest's Expansion: Book Babies
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Book Harvest is expanding! Watch this space for updates on our latest endeavors.
 Book Babies, Book Harvest's birth to five in-home literacy program, is now in Wake County!
Beginning when a baby is born and continuing until kindergarten, Book Babies partners with families of Medicaid-eligible newborns to provide quarterly literacy coaching home visits, an abundance of resources (including a home library of more than 100 new books!), and additional supports to optimize their child's early language and literacy skills.
The program began in Durham in 2013 and has since seen 211 Book Babies graduate from the five-year program. In 2018, Book Babies expanded to Forsyth County in partnership with Imprints Cares, and we are thrilled to now bring Book Babies to Wake County in partnership with Wake County Smart Start.
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Highlighting Black History Month, the books for February’s Featured Five spotlight lesser known figures in history.
You can purchase these books and have them shipped directly to Book Harvest. You might also like to have them in your home library! View purchasing options.
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Questions? Email Amy Franks, Director of School and Family Engagement at amy@bookharvest.org.
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What We're Reading & Watching
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- Perspective | One question every school superintendent should be asking right now, by Ginger Young, EducationNC, January 29, 2024
- North Carolina once led the way in early childhood policy and investment. Five other states are showing us how to do it again, by Katie Dukes and Liz Bell, EducationNC, January 24, 2024
- TODAY ONLY: Watch A Right to Read, a film by Jenny Mackenzie, executive produced by Levar Burton
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