Photos: Bethune Elementary students celebrate reading, receive donated books

Students at Mary Bethune Elementary School in Atlanta celebrated the joy of reading last week, as the entire second grade class received free copies of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are during a reading celebration.

The October 30 event was part of a year-long book donation campaign sponsored by Wipro, an IT services and consulting company with about 500 Atlanta-based employees, and First Book, an education non-profit. In all, the two partners will distribute 6,250 books to low-income children in the Atlanta area and 35,000 throughout five markets in the U.S. and Canada in 2015.

“The reading celebration gave our employee volunteers a special opportunity to read aloud and provide each participating student with a new book to take home,” said Anurag Behar, Wipro’s chief sustainability officer.

Several community leaders were also on hand for the celebration, including Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall and Board of Education member Byron Amos.

The book conation campaign is part of a broader effort by Wipro to invest in education initiatives within the city of Atlanta. The company is also a founding sponsor of Georgia Tech’s new Center for the Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies (CDAIT).

Photos courtesy of Nick Burchell