Baltimore County Youth Receive The Gift Of Books

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — More than 2,500 books have been donated to children across Baltimore County recently. John Patricolo with From One Fan to Another, a Maryland-based nonprofit, said the organization decided to spearhead an initiative to raise the money to purchase and distribute books to children across Baltimore County. Catonsville Presbyterian Church Child Care Center received a batch of books, too.

"With some help from the Baltimore Community Foundation, we were able to get the funds we needed to purchase sports-related books for children of all ages to enjoy," Patricolo told Patch. "We were one of the beneficiaries of the Baltimore County COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund and we used those funds to purchase these books and distribute them to children in Baltimore County."

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it actually ended up being harder than organizers imagined trying to distribute the books.

"After we heard the news we received a grant from this fund, we started calling different organizations serving kids in the Baltimore County community. With a lot of restrictions due to coronavirus, finding groups willing to accept the books and distribute them to deserving children was actually a little difficult. We did want to do a few smaller groups that we had connections with in addition to the bigger organizations such as the Baltimore Hunger Project," Patricolo said.
More than 1,000 of the books donated went to the Baltimore Hunger Project, while more than 600 were given to My New Book and almost 500 went to Children's Home. Other recipients include Soccer Shots, Little Rockers, Arc Baltimore and Family Affair.