Children receive free books at SPL’S Storytime
Starkville Public Library hosted a fun, immersive storytelling event with the Kids Need to Read national, nonprofit foundation this past Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Around 140 kids from the community, including from the Starkville Boys and Girls Club, gathered to listen to Tina and Gary Mlodzik and Edwina Williams, or Mother Goose, perform and read books. After the storytelling, every child was able to pick out brand new, recently published books, magazines, and puzzle books to take home for free.
Loraine Walker who serves as the children’s librarian for Starkville Public Library applied for a grant through the Kids Need to Read foundation and brought Tina and Gary Mlodzik to Starkville along with a donation of over $7,500 worth of books for the library. The Mlodziks both serve as board members for the Kids Need to Read foundation and travel all across the United States in their mission to improve reading literacy and foster a love for reading.
Walker emphasizes the importance
of creating an environment that promotes reading and literacy and how exciting the library’s programs are for the children.
“The most important part is to spark a love of reading. To me, there is nobody who doesn’t love to read, there are just kids who haven’t found the right book yet,” said Walker. “For some of these kids, this is their very first new book that they’ve owned, and it’s like Christmas morning. It gives them an ownership over their literacy and makes them feel confident, and Kids Need to Read gives them that confidence and excitement.”
Walker is extremely passionate about child literacy and helping reluctant readers or kids who are struggling with reading. Walker is working hard with other staff members to start the library’s early literacy program and aims to have it available by September. Walker also plans to teach classes for the Head Start Center and assist daycare teachers and parents as part of her initiative.
With the upcoming school year around the corner, Walker hopes to spark more excitement with events like these and continue to provide children with more and more books to read and strike their interest.
“What Gary and Tina do with Kids Need to Read is so special. They make relationships with these children, and hopefully they’ll be back year after year,” said Walker. “This is something that builds relationships within the community and with them, and it’s just really special.”
Kids Need to Read was founded over a decade ago to provide literary resources to underfunded communities around the United States. Tina and Gary Mlodzik primarily functioned in Phoenix, Arizona but have started traveling across the United States since 2015 as part of their Grow Your Library Program. They solicit authors and publishers for book donations in order to hold giveaways and reach out to libraries in the areas they are going to.
From as far as California to Minnesota, the Mlodziks have visited 16 states to promote their mission, sending over 600 books to each library and personally visiting to share storytime with the children. Wednesday’s event was their 34th event since the beginning of their program, and they hope to continue supporting libraries for many years to come.
“From my viewpoint, the main goal is to expand horizons and let children know that there’s more than what they see,” said Gary Mlodzik. “Books give hope, you can use them to explore places and things you otherwise wouldn’t know about. We’re hoping that through literacy and through books, opportunities come up whether it be in education, travel, or in life.”
Furthermore, they offered the opportunity where parents can email what kind of books their children are interested in, and they will donate that book in the child’s honor. The Mlodziks and Walker all brought joy to each child at the event while expanding their imagination.
“We’re just thankful for the opportunity to do this, and it’s wonderful because you have library staff who are passionate about what they do,” said Gary Mlodzik. “That being said, they don’t always have the resources to do the things they would like to do for the kids, so it’s great to be in a position to help.”
Every Wednesday of July, the library will have storytime at 10:00 a.m. To participate in other engaging opportunities the Starkville Public Library hosts, be sure to look for future events on their calendar on their website: https://starkville.lib.ms.us/