Blackshear elementary students celebrate book donation

Blackshear Elementary School students have been gifted with 500 brand new books thanks to a local donation effort led by Wipro, an IT services and consulting company, and First Book, an education-focused non-profit, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

They teamed up for a "reading celebration" on December 15th that brought 500 brand new books to excited elementary school students. Wipro previously worked with First Book this year to donate 18,000 new books to the elementary, middle, and high schools in Texas impacted by Hurricane Harvey, as well as 500 books to Clifford M. Dunn Elementary School students in Houston. In 2015, Wipro also donated 6,250 books to students and conducted a reading event at Ashford Elementary School in Houston in 2015.

Congresswoman Jackson Lee, who attended the event and has been deeply involved with public education issues in the Houston area for three decades, said: “What we are learning is that the brain is like a muscle in that you have to exercise it for it to become very good at something. Reading is helping to make children better learners, but it also helps them develop brains that are not only smarter but better at learning, remerging, and making connections.”

The Wipro and First Book have teamed up to deliver over 118,000 books to in-need children since 2015. The goal is to distribute 200,000 books throughout the U.S. and Canada during their three-year partnership.

“First Book is excited to help Wipro grow its relationship with the local community in Houston through the power of reading,” said Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First Book.