For several years, Tennessee’s first lady, Crissy Haslam, has been on a mission to improve children’s reading skills through her statewide Read 20 program, which encourages families to read together for at least 20 minutes per day.
The program was expanded last year to include the Read 20 Book Patrol, a partnership with local law enforcement agencies that distributed 5,000 books to low-income Tennessee communities for summer reading.
Mrs. Haslam, who is a past president of the Junior League of Nashville, is now collaborating with Junior Leagues across the state to collect additional books during the month of May.
She will launch the book drive locally at the Junior League of Chattanooga’s annual awards celebration on Monday.
Junior League of Chattanooga President Shelley McGraw and Community Impact Vice President Brooke Maedel traveled to Nashville last month to meet with Mrs. Haslam and Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, along with Tennessee State Representatives Kevin Brooks, Beth Harwell and Patsy Hazlewood. In addition to formalizing the Read 20 Book Patrol partnership, Ms. McGraw and Ms. Maedel also shared with them information about other local Junior League efforts, including the Seeds of Change initiative to eliminate food deserts in Hamilton County.
“During its rich 98-year history, our Junior League has impacted Chattanooga with so many significant projects,” said Ms. McGraw. “We are thrilled to be joining hands with Leagues across our state in partnership with Mrs. Haslam for this project. This initiative, coupled with our Mini-Grants for public school teachers, Kids in the Kitchen childhood nutrition program and other local efforts are wonderful ways for the Junior League of Chattanooga to give back to our community’s children.”
Junior League is collecting books from now through May 30 for officers of the Chattanooga Police Department to distribute through the Read 20 Book Patrol. Books may be donated at the organization’s headquarters at 622 East 4th St.
For more information about the Junior League of Chattanooga and its community engagement projects, visit www.jlchatt.org.