Organization offers first book at community outreach event

Young students in the Pasadena Independent School District and other surrounding districts will get a chance to own their first book through a project being sponsored by University of Houston-Clear Lake’s chapter of the Association for Childhood Education International. The student group will host the First Book event Friday, Feb. 15, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., in the university’s Bayou Building, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston.

“We have invited about 800 children from area school districts to participate this year,” says Association for Childhood Education International publicity officer Pleshette Williams. “These are children who either have very little access to books or have no books at all in their homes.”

Williams says that districts are chosen through correspondence between the organization and school administrators and emphasizes the importance of involving districts with a high population of bilingual and English as a Second Language students. The university student organization already volunteers in a reading program focused on English as a second language early childhood students and their families at Deep Water Learning Center in Deer Park.

Founded in 1992, First Book is a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. The student group became involved with the national nonprofit organization four years ago.

For more information about UH-Clear Lake’s Association for Childhood Education International, visit the organization’s Web site, http://www.uhcl.edu/studentorgs/acei.