BAKERSFIELD, CA. — It was an exciting day for 23ABC News! We were able to donate hundreds of books to local children at Zephyr Lane Elementary Thursday morning.
Our partner the Kern Literacy Council said many children attending low income schools here in Kern County don't have a single book at home. Our giveaway was all in an effort to change that.
"The number of books in the school is the key indicator of school success," Kern Literacy Council Executive Director Laura Lollar Wolfe said.
A few months back, 23ABC employees donated thousands of dollars from our paychecks as part of our company's "If you Give a Child a Book" campaign.
The mission of the campaign: to fill local children's hands with books that will help them blossom academically.
"When you build that love and that foundation for reading skills at such a young age, I feel like it carries positivity through," Zephyr Lane Elementary Principal Anthony Beckman said.
We also gave thousands of dollars to the KLC to support programs year round.
The most impactful surprise of the day was presenting the KLC with a $10,000 check from the Scripps Howard Foundation.
