‘This is mind blowing for us:’ How a donation is making a difference for young readers

The nearly 250 children that benefit from the services provided by Freedom Readers in Myrtle Beach will have their hands full of books after the organization received a donation from The UPS Store on Tuesday.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Toys for Tots Literacy Program, which promotes children’s literacy in low-income and disadvantaged communities, the international shipping company wanted to award $10,000 worth of books from Scholastic to select non-profit organizations and schools across the nation.

“As a company committed to the cause of children’s literacy, The UPS Store is thrilled to support the non-profit organizations and schools selected for our Literacy Recognition Program,” said Tim Davis, president of The UPS Store, Inc.

“These non-profit organizations exemplify a shared vision of helping children succeed through education, with a special emphasis on the importance of learning to read.”

With the public encouraged last year to nominate qualifying charitable and philanthropic groups for the award, Freedom Readers was one of 10 organizations chosen out of 1,000 nominations based in part on its mission to help children in under served communities through education.

“This donation really does help us achieve that mission and it helps kids understand how much we value them,” Freedom Readers founder and executive director Dr. Tracey Bailey said. “Then they start to value reading and literacy more because they have access to these books at home.”

Bailey launched Freedom Readers in the Conway area nine years ago tutoring kids in public housing communities after school. Now, the program has expanded to communities and schools across South Carolina where roughly 250 elementary students in low-income communities receive weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions.

While students benefit from the collaborative network of volunteers, Bailey said the highlight for her is having each student leave every session with a book-in-hand to build their own library.

“At the end of every meeting they get to select a book from a table we have set up,” Bailey said. “We tell the kids they never have to bring the book back.”

With Freedom Readers current focus K-5 students, Bailey said she’s working to pilot a middle school program, but hopes to one day have enough resources to help kids from the day they are born to the day they graduate high school.

But for now, she’s grateful to The UPS Store for supporting their mission and giving the organization an opportunity to grow.

“This is mind blowing for us. It’s a game changer,” Bailey said. “We give away so many books but now we can take the money we allot for books and direct it toward keeping our doors open. It’s a big deal for us.”

Other recipients include, Bridge of Books, Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Louisiana, CCs Early Learning Head Start, Dayton Elementary School, Every Child A Reader in Escambia, Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library, Poston Road Elementary, Read Aloud West Virginia, and Ready Readers.