Today, I just wanted to take a moment to shed some light on a great group that is focused on getting books into the hands of families who cannot afford to buy them — or even have the means to get to a library: Wee Care Community Outreach. Savannah, one of the women involved in this non-profit group, won a copy of “Why Kimba Saved The World” through Goodreads.com, but after hearing about her group I also donated two more copies. I will let them speak in their own words.

“Wee Care Community Outreach was set up approx. 7 years ago. I founded the organization to help families with everyday needed essentials-cleaning supplies, infant supplies, work tools, school supplies, etc. After several major changes in my life I relocated to Georgia and in my experience in this state there are many literacy issues. There are children who do not read well, one main reason is that families are trying so hard to ‘make ends meet’ and can not afford to purchase children’s books. While libraries are available, often times many families do not have a vehicle to take their children to the library-or the price of gasoline stops them from doing so. We distribute children’s books to lower income at-risk children between the ages of 3 and 17. We also feel literacy is important because we live in an area of Georgia in which the children may be the only English speaking members of a family. It is our hopes that instilling the importance of literacy and helping these children read and write better in hopes that they will teacher their elderly family members to learn English as a secondary language. Our recent donations from the children’s literacy program is:

100 Book Donation to Center Point Baptist Church
100 Book Donation to Province Children’s Home
100 Books Donated to individual families in the month of March 2013

Hospital Book Donation Program-This program is designed to loan books to patients who are recovering in the hospital. I added this program because I once had a surgery and was alone in the hospital. I felt like all I thought about was the pain I was going through. We feel that this program touches many peoples lives in different ways–we are able to show a lonely patient that someone cares, spread the importance of literacy, and take a patients mind off of their illnesses, injuries, and pain-allowing their bodies to heal quicker. This program is in the beginning stages beginning with book collection.

While we are NOT a religious based organization, we were contacted by an organization called Province Boys Home. (They have other homes as well that also service men, women, and children.) The individuals that they help include families who are homeless and have lost everything, people who have been addicted to drugs, and those who have been in jail/prison. This is a transitional home helping to put these people back on track. They only allow religious based books but, when I go in to make a book donation many of the residents ask me for their own books. The smile on their faces of gratitude is a wondrous something as simple as a book. The religious books donated almost always are donated to this wonderful non profit organization.”

You can make a book or other donation to:

Wee Care Community Outreach
C/O Dawn Lowery
2873 Wells Drive
Dalton, Georgia 30721