Children's Book Drive

United
Ways of Monmouth and Ocean Counties Team up with the Lakewood
BlueClaws for a Children’s Book Drive on July 11th

United Way of Monmouth County, United Way of Ocean County
and the Lakewood BlueClaws are teaming up for a book drive to benefit
area children at the July 11th BlueClaws game. Fans
attending the 7:05 p.m. game are asked to bring a NEW book(s)
appropriate for kids in grades K-3 to the United Way table inside the
stadium. For each book donated, fans will receive a voucher for a
Saturday BlueClaws home game in August. Families can receive up to
four ticket vouchers.  

In
Monmouth County, the books will be distributed through the Early
Grade Reading Initiative. This effort provides high-quality holistic
learning opportunities during the summer. When children are not exposed to sufficient reading or enrichment experiences throughout
the summer, it’s easy to fall behind academically – creating a
“summer slide” – and it’s very difficult to catch up. But
with the right opportunities, including the ability to learn during
the summer, all children can flourish.

These
summer programs are designed to focus not only on learning, literacy

and reading, but also additional enrichment activities, such as arts,
music, physical activity and nature/outside play. Children
participating in the program will receive books courtesy of community
drives, like the one being held at the BlueClaws game.

When
children are out of school for the summer, they often lose access to

books. United Way of Ocean County is collecting books to provide mini

home libraries to children of several of our partner agencies. Our
goal is to inspire young people to remain engaged in learning while
developing their communication skills and imaginations. 

For more information about summer early grade reading grants, please contact United Way of Monmouth County at 732-938-5988 or info@uwmonmouth.org. To learn more about the United Way or its Community Impact agenda, please visit uwmonmouth.org.