Durham literacy event gives away 15,363 books to children – EdNC

On Saturday, July 18, more than 3,500 neighbors filled Durham Central Park for our annual Summer Block Party — and in just three hours, children harvested 15,363 books to take home and keep forever. Let me put that number in perspective. Stacked one on top of another, those books would rise more than 600 feet into the sky — nearly twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. But of course, that’s not where they are. They’re on nightstands and bookshelves, in backpacks, and home libraries all across our community. One mom told me, as her young son hugged a cherished new find, that he sleeps with his favorite book under his pillow every single night. Sign up for the EdWeekly, a Friday roundup of the most important education news of the week. Here is the moment I haven’t stopped thinking about. At one point during the afternoon, I watched three children: one, still in a stroller, completely absorbed in a book; two others who had simply plopped themselves down on the ground, books open in their laps. Around them, thousands of people were talking, laughing, moving, celebrating. None of it mattered. They couldn’t wait. They had stories to discover.
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