U.S. Rep. Rick Allen brought a basket of books, and more books that had already been placed to help refill the shelves, Thursday afternoon for the Reading Nook maintained by the Bulloch County Literacy Council at Statesboro City Hall.
In fact, this particular Reading Nook, one of 46 the Literacy Council has established at locations mainly provided by businesses across Statesboro and in Brooklet, Portal and Stilson, is just outside the 12th District Georgia congressman’s Statesboro office, which is in a front corner of the City Hall lobby. The city provides space rent-free both to Allen and the Literacy Council.
“I really appreciate what y’all have done to promote literacy,” Allen told local Literacy Council members and city and school system officials.
“In fact, I established a bill in the United States Congress called March to Literacy, and the principal reason for promoting literacy is that we know that if you’re not reading at the third-grade level when you finish the third grade, you’re likely not going to graduate from high school,” he said, “and if they don’t graduate from high school, we lose these young people, and we don’t want to lose one young person.”
The books Allen brought were from the Library of Congress – which he said receives multiple copies of every book published – through a long-established program that provides excess copies of books to representatives and senators.
“This program allows us, members of Congress, to donate in our district these excess books, so that we can make them available to young people to spur their interest to read,” he said.
As a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Allen also reads to children in schools, “just like I’ve done with my grandchildren,” he said.
The nooks contain books for children from birth through young adulthood. Not only can children read the books while seated on the beanbag chair or other cozy seating provided at a nook like the one at City Hall, they may take a book home to keep.
They are one of three programs the Bulloch County Literacy Council, a group of educators, literacy organization members, business and civic organization leaders and community volunteers, promotes to supply free books to children. The others are the Bulloch County Schools Book Bus and some “Sharing Libraries” fashioned from former newspaper vending boxes.
Crystal Simpkins, Bulloch County Schools director of early learning and literacy, also serves as the council’s coordinator.
“A lot of books are donated to us,” she said. “We receive grant money, we receive a ton of support from the Bulloch County Schools, but we’re able to purchase books as well, so as we see that we are low for a certain grade-level, age group, we purchase more books for that group.”
Allen also responded to a few questions from the Statesboro Herald, which will publish a separate story about that next week.