Volunteers needed to clean books for Read Aloud April 27

Volunteers will gather from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, April 27, to clean children’s books donated for Read Aloud Delaware. The community service event will be held in the Villages of Five Points Community Center.

Read Aloud Delaware’s mission is to ensure that all preschool children 2 to 5 years of age will be ready to learn to read when they enter kindergarten. Volunteers read one-on-one to children in childcare centers, preschools and some elementary schools. The program also stocks literacy corners with children’s books in state service center waiting rooms throughout Sussex County. Parents can read to their children while waiting, and a child can take a book home upon leaving.

Stacy Penaranda, Read Aloud Delaware coordinator for Sussex County, said, “Reading to children sets them on the road to literacy and a better life status. Children who are read to are less likely to drop out of school, more likely to be employed as adults, and less likely to depend on public assistance.”

Boxes of books have been donated for the community service day. Volunteers will wipe the books with sanitizing cloths, erase marks inside the books or cover them with stickers, and place Read Aloud Delaware stickers on each book.

Read Aloud’s Mother Goose, who educates and entertains children in classrooms throughout Sussex County, will make an appearance at the book cleaning.

To register for the event, contact Hilda Chaski Adams at keepmailhca@gmail.com.