BUFFALO, N.Y. — For our final Most Buffalo Story of the Day of the week, we're taking you to the Parkside neighborhood in Buffalo where a bookstore just launched a program to help kids in Buffalo get new books at school.
"When it comes to a classroom's library, a lot of times the teachers are responsible for filling those libraries, those bookshelves themselves, so a lot of times classroom teachers are spending upwards of $700 on their own supplies a year. And this is a program that we started so that kids aren't limited to whatever their teachers can afford," said Alex Nowicki, the manager of Alice, Ever After Books.
Alex Nowicki knows how important it is for kids to have access to a variety of books.
"We know literacy is very important for kids' development, but it's also really important that kids have books to look at where the characters look like them or are going through experiences that they go through, and then it's also really important for kids to be exposed to experiences that they'll never go through," said Alex Nowicki.
That's why Nowicki launched C.A.R.E. for a Classroom this year. It's a community-based initiative where you can donate money for classroom libraries in Buffalo.
"So teachers and students can get new material every month for the whole school year," said Alex Nowicki.
A bookstore in Kentucky started a similar program, and that inspired Nowicki to start one like it here.
So far, each classroom has received about fifty books. Right now, they have twelve classrooms fully sponsored, and they're looking to help more.
"My goal was ten classrooms fully sponsored, and we have exceeded that. So really this is just lovely to see, and we would just like to see as many classrooms as possible get books," said Alex Nowicki.
They have Pre-K through 8th grade classrooms signed up as of now, but Nowicki and bookstore owner Meg Howe, want to help everyone through 12th grade.
"When they're in 4th and 5th grade, and 6th grade even if they're struggling to read and they don't have books that are interesting to them, they very well could walk away and say that's not something for me. And we know that having a good book that you're so pumped to read, and motivated to read, even if you're struggling, you're going to do the hard work to keep working on it," said Meg Howe, owner of Alice, Ever After Books.
You can donate directly on the Alice, Ever After Books website and pick sponsorships from one month up to the whole school year.
"It's so cool to see teachers want to get these books into kiddos' hands and also the people that live in Buffalo obviously love Buffalo and want to see their kids succeed, so we just feel lucky to be able to see it from start to finish. I delivered books to the teachers today and just getting to see the smile on their face when you hand them over these free books, it's really cool," said Nowicki.