Thanks to a $4,375 grant from the Galloway Ridge Chatham County Charitable Fund, Chatham Reads was able to bring Books on Break to The Nature Trail community for a second year. A program of the Chatham Education Foundation (CEF) and Chatham County Schools (CCS), Chatham Reads hosts free book fairs at CCS schools in low-income communities. This past April and May, book fairs were held at seven elementary schools and nearly 2,400 students each took home 4-5 books.
The Nature Trail, located in the northeast corner of Chatham County, is a mobile home community of approximately 200 Latino families whose children attend North Chatham Elementary (NCE) School and Pollard Middle School. While the majority of students at NCE do not qualify for free or reduced lunch, almost all the students living in The Nature Trail do. That’s why Chatham Reads brought Books on Break directly to The Nature Trail.
In partnership with The Learning Trail, a nonprofit that provides pre-K – grade 5 students living in The Nature Trail with academic and social support, Chatham Reads first hosted Books on Break at The Nature Trail in May 2024. While many of the neighborhood children visited the fair last year, the goal this year was to entice even more students to come by providing snacks and promoting the fair to get families excited about attending.
It worked! This year, 71 students, up from 53 last year, attended the fair and took home about 280 brand-new books. In addition, Chatham Reads donated 80 books to The Learning Trail’s preschool program and tutors. The students loved the snacks and variety of high-interest book choices, including some bilingual titles. “Your selection of books was spot on for our students and the variety gave them choices, something we cannot always offer them,” said Ann White, program chair of The Learning Trail.
White also emphasized the importance of having books available in the neighborhood because a trip to the Pittsboro library is often not an option for the families. Besides hosting Books on Break at The Nature Trail, Chatham Reads also provides The Learning Trail with gently-used books and stocks a mini-lending library in the neighborhood. “The families in The Nature Trail neighborhood are eager to see their children improve their reading skills despite facing several challenges,” said Kathy Havens, program manager for Chatham Reads. “We hope that by providing the children with books they want to read, it not only keeps them reading over the summer but also fosters a love of books.”
The Galloway Ridge Chatham County Charitable Fund is the principal charitable arm of Galloway Ridge, located within Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, NC. The fund was established in 2006 as a means for residents and other donors to support Chatham County nonprofits as well as school and governmental agency projects through tax deductible donations.