PORTLAND, Ore. -- At James John Elementary School in North Portland, a class of kindergartners vibrate with excitement. They are picking through stacks of books in the library. But the students don’t have to return these books next week, next month or ever. The books are theirs to keep. A gift from The Children’s Book Bank in Portland.
“The Children’s Book Bank is a place for families to donate the books our kids have outgrown,” said founder Danielle Swope.
It’s a simple idea started by Danielle in 2008. The former teacher dropped off some slightly used but still perfectly good books at a local Head Start program.
Within a week Danielle says she was getting calls with people asking, “Are you the book lady? How do I apply for books from your program?”
Photos: Children's Book Bank
Photos: The Children's Book Bank
So Danielle starting asking friends for books, who then asked their friends. “Before I knew it we had thousands of books to get us started and now we are here.” Danielle said.
Ten years and stacks of books later, about 120,000 books come in each year to the center where an army of volunteers go to work.
“They wipe covers, erase scribbles and tape torn pages,” said Danielle. And when they are as good as new, a variety of books are then sorted into bags for delivery to younger children. Others end up at schools like James John Elementary for book fairs at the end of the year.
“The importance of these books is that kids need these to read over summer vacation,” said Danielle.
Because at The Children’s Book Bank, everyone believes a summer filled with stories of pirates and poetry can lead to a lifetime of learning.