I recently received an email message from Anna Graham, one of my former graduate students. During her time at UNC Charlotte, Anna regularly volunteered with Promising Pages, a local nonprofit organization that provides area children with books of their own. Shortly after graduating with an M.A. in English in May 2024, Anna joined Promising Pages as their new Community Engagement Coordinator. I talked with her on the phone right after she accepted the position, and she was ecstatic that this role would enable her to share her love of reading and the magic of books with children in our Charlotte community who might otherwise not have access to books. That conversation took place several months ago, and I wondered what she had been up to since then. Well, in her email, she expressed how much she loved her new job, and she told me a little about her involvement with a fundraising event that she hoped I might help promote. I told her I would be happy to help, and I asked her for more information about her work with Promising Pages and their upcoming fundraising event. Here is what she sent to me:
As a child, I was lucky that I lived in a household with constant access to books. My mother shared her love of reading with me and had the resources to ensure I had a large home library of all my favorite titles. I genuinely believe that my access to books shaped me into the person I am today and prepared me for my future. I’m sure that many fellow book lovers can attest to similar stories – that their home libraries enabled their initial love of reading. However, home libraries are often seen as a luxury for under-resourced children and families in our community. All children need books in their homes to grow academically, and in turn succeed in life, but there are an estimated 60,000 children in the Charlotte area living in a book desert. The local nonprofit that I work for, Promising Pages: The Charlotte Area Book Bank, collects new and donated books and distributes them to students and organizations, with the goal of eliminating the book desert and providing a free resource to those who need it most.
To those who love books, like me, it was particularly upsetting to learn just how widespread the shortage of access to books is for so many people in our community. My work at Promising Pages addresses this by distributing books through a variety of programs, including our largest, Books on Break, which provides Title I schools with FREE book fairs for PreK-5th grade students. Each student chooses 5 free books to read over the summer, which helps students maintain their reading levels and sets them up for academic success in the following school year. 22 schools – 68,000+ books, 12,000+ students. Our goal is to provide free book fairs to all 64 title I schools in CMS. Some other plans of ours include expanding resources for our early childhood & healthcare partners and reaching our 2 million books distributed milestone!
Just like any nonprofit, Promising Pages relies on the generosity of supportive community members to fund our efforts. Everyone at Promising Pages acknowledges this, and that’s why we created our upcoming fundraiser, Novels & Nightcaps, as a “Bookfair for Grown-Ups” that celebrates our book-loving supporters. Bringing together locally owned bookstores, Novels & Nightcaps is a community event for attendees to shop, listen to comedy adult read-alouds, and visit our book-themed selfie booth. This year’s Novels & Nightcaps has a brand-new theme, “Flights of Fancy,” capturing the way books can whisk us away to fantastical worlds. Novels & Nightcaps takes place on Thursday, February 27th from 6 pm to 9 pm at The Union @ Station West: 919 Berryhill Rd suite 105, Charlotte, NC 28208. All ticket proceeds go directly to Promising Pages to support our efforts to increase literacy and eliminate barriers to book access for children in our Charlotte community. (Attendees must be 21+). The event has been a ton of fun to plan, and I hope to see you all there! For more information about this event, please click on the following link: https://promising-pages.org/novels-and-nightcaps/
I thank Anna for sending me this information, and I commend everyone associated with Promising Pages for providing so many Charlotte children with their own books. In so doing, Promising Pages is making an important contribution to countless children’s lives and to the continued vitality of Storied Charlotte.
