By Denise Gary
Photos by Denise Gary and Lori Cothrun
What would Kids Need to Read be without your labors on its behalf? Your gifts of time and expertise have a direct impact on this organization’s ability to grow and increase its impact on the children of our communities. On this Labor Day, we would like to shine a light on some folks who labored extremely hard in order to help us prepare for an increase in our program activities.
When we moved into our new office a year ago, this is what our warehouse space looked like:
We knew we had to do something to be able to organize books and other resources in order to effectively manage them and expand our literacy programs. When a sizable donation was received from Mr. Joss Whedon, we knew the first thing we needed to do was use a tiny portion of those funds to purchase industrial shelving. But we also knew we were not capable of assembling those shelves. Enter our heroes, members of Silent Hope Church, who offered to build our shelves.
We cannot rave enough about the efficiency and skill of Pastor Jeremy Fass and his crew! They were so incredibly fast, and they even did things like vacuuming and taking things to the trash on their own volition!
Even more amazing, they did not mind when they had to move everything around when I changed my mind about where things should go!
These gentlemen were a true blessing and brought so much joy to Kids Need to Read! That’s Pastor Jeremy holding the Kindness Ninja (below).
Jared Duran (below), Community Business Development Manager at Barnes & Noble Desert Ridge, also helped build shelves on the first work day, and volunteer Mark Broadley lent a hand, as well.
Longtime volunteer Michael Emerson came to help load books on the shelves … and I did change my mind some more. Poor guy!
These wonderful folks arranged books and supplies on the new warehouse shelves, and sorted loads of books: KNTR board member Gary Mlodzik, and volunteers Tina Mlodzik, Shelby McBride, Drew Adams, Michael Emerson, and Lisa Richins.
Together, the labor of all these kind hearts turned our warehouse into this:
Did we stop at industrial shelving? Of course not! We decided we needed some STURDY new office shelves to replace the old units that were literally falling to pieces!
We wanted this shelving area to double as an event space, so we proclaimed the new shelves must be bright and cheery! Wendy Trakes thoughtfully set up a shelving fundraiser to help KNTR make this new acquisition.
Jason Mull was the first to come assemble some of the new shelves for KNTR’s event space, followed by volunteer Shelby McBride.
Gary and Tina Mlodzik finished the task as cheerfully as the sunny shelves themselves.
Volunteer Sara Fujimura came on World Book Day to sort and shelve books on the new units. It is always World Book Day at Kids Need to Read!
So this …
… was transformed into this, thanks to the laborious efforts of the many kind folks mentioned above.
And our warehouse? Well, our shelves have since filled with many treasures and wonders traveling in and out of our doors! KNTR just received five pallets of books for the READ Together summer book packs, with more to come. Fortunately, we are now prepared and organized to handle the increased load, thanks to the wonderful outpouring of assistance we received.
Had we not had the support of these and many other selfless people, we could not have dreamed of providing the READ Together program to twenty schools across the country, in addition to KNTR’s regular provision of books to schools and libraries in need. This illustrates how vital your continuing support is to Kids Need to Read and its ability to increase its literacy services to more children. YOU are making a difference in the lives of teachers and children who desperately need access to the books and programs KNTR provides. Rest assured, Kids Need to Read will continue to labor toward increasing literacy rates among our children.
May you and your family have a beautiful and literacy-rich Labor Day!
Related Story: ‘Twas a Lively KNTR Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
