Turn the Page campaign<\/a> is marking a major milestone this year.<\/p>\nNow in its 10th year, the effort is helping put books directly into the hands of Houston children. On Friday, KHOU 11 volunteers gathered at the Books Between Kids warehouse to help process thousands of donated books that will soon go to students and families across the Houston area.<\/p>\n
Books Between Kids Executive Director Kayla Hand said the organization\u2019s mission is centered on helping children build home libraries of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cBooks Between Kids mission is to help kids build their own home library, so books are donated right here to our warehouse, but then we have to process them,\u201d Hand said. \u201cSo we utilize all the volunteers to help sort, sticker, and pack those books, and we\u2019ll distribute them to over 55 schools and 90 community partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year marks the 10th anniversary of KHOU 11\u2019s Turn the Page campaign partnering with Books Between Kids.<\/p>\n
Hand said the citywide effort has grown into something much bigger than a traditional book drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes this initiative special is we\u2019re getting books into the hand of kids who do not have books,\u201d Hand said. \u201cThis is a citywide campaign. It\u2019s taking the whole Houston community, bringing us together, and serve the children in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the volunteers Friday was KHOU 11 General Manager David Loving, who said the campaign reflects one of the most meaningful parts of local broadcasting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, honestly, it\u2019s one of the best part of being a local broadcaster, it\u2019s one of the best things we do, and it just makes you feel really good,\u201d Loving said.<\/p>\n
Other KHOU 11 employees also joined, including members of the station\u2019s sales team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love to read at home, both of my kids, so I wanted to make sure to give that gift to every child here in Houston,\u201d said Sonya Villamagna, a KHOU 11 volunteer.<\/p>\n
Volunteer Katerina Arroyos said books help children better understand the world around them.<\/p>\n
“Books are so important. I think it\u2019s an important tool for kids to interact and learn about the world around them,\u201d Arroyos said. \u201cThat\u2019s why this is one of my favorite volunteer events of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Dale Lockett, KHOU 11\u2019s director of local programming and community marketing, the 10-year milestone carries special meaning. Lockett helped launch the campaign and has watched it grow from a smaller effort into a citywide drive with more than 150 drop-off locations.<\/p>\n
\u201c10 years is a huge deal. We started this campaign with just an idea \u2014 it started with 20 locations and now we\u2019re at over 150 drop-off locations,\u201d Lockett said.<\/p>\n
This year, the goal is to collect 40,000 new or gently used books, continuing a decade-long effort to get reading materials into the hands of Houston children.<\/p>\n
The Turn the Page campaign runs through April 17. For details, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now in its 10th year, the effort is helping put books directly into the hands of Houston children.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-245336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}