Founded by an Emergency Department Physician Assistant, Let’s Read targets children ages 0-12 whom visit a medical facility’s Emergency Department or Urgency Care either for treatment or to accompany an adult.

From the Founder:

I came by the inspiration for this project 3 years ago at Summerfest. An organization was giving out free books for children at that time and my son loved the book that he got from them. I was told then that the literacy level of children would actually regress by the end of summer if they did not keep up with reading skills that they had learned during the school year. As a PA in a busy ER, I have noticed children being extremely bored while waiting for themselves or a loved one to be evaluated and treated. Given the emergent nature of their visit to our facility, most parents do not have the time or ability to pack something to occupy their child during the visit. The kids often play with our garbage bin, medical supplies or just lay around on our dirty floors. The luckier ones have electronic devices to relieve their boredom. Very few kids had books to read. I thought that if they had a book, they would be able to have something to do as well as improve their literacy skills. They were the perfect captive audience!

The initial idea was to build a library of books where kids could read while waiting. As I kept researching the feasibility of this project, I realized that many of these children are from homes where they do not have any books. Also, from an infection control standpoint, it was better not to have the books recirculated as we do often have sick children in the emergency department. I decided to give out a book to each child, who can take the book home and build their own library. Thus, the “Let’s Read” project was born and have been working to start up the project and having book drives to collect new or gently used books for the project ever since.

We will continue to raise funds and collect books on an ongoing basis to replenish our supply of books so that it will be a sustainable project. We are targeting children ages 0-12 and we are asking for age appropriate books to be donated. We currently have three categories of books: Toddler, Preschool and School Aged kids.

We hope to expand our program to include more books for infants so that they are exposed to more books and less electronic devices with the hopes that it will spark a love of reading. We have signs encouraging parents to read aloud to their children and we also have a flyers to educate parents on the benefits of reading in children.