NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — In the heart of a flood prone Westchester County neighborhood there is a little literacy oasis built by a group of high school seniors.
As part of Mamaroneck High School’s Original Civic Research & Action elective, students identified the need for more access to age-specific books in a community that is often referred to as a “book desert,” especially during the summer months when many students lose access to books.
“Data shows that if a kid has books in their house, they're less likely to be affected by the ‘summer slide,’” said Luca Giobbio, one of the students involved in the project.
A phenomenon where students who have less access to books over the summer lose more of the reading skills they developed over the past school year, the “summer slide” is prevalent in Washingtonville where the high schoolers decided to place their book depot.
“There's an organization called 'Unite for Literacy' and on their website, they have a map, an interactive map, where you can look at your local community and it's categorized by the percentage of homes with 100 books or more,” Giobbio said. “And in [Washingtonville] 25% of homes have 100 bucks or more.”
The small, freestanding book compartment is similar to a “Little Free Library” structure but is filled with books specifically tailored to elementary students from the community. The kids who utilize it are also encouraged to keep the books in their homes.
“This is exactly what we wanted, just kids coming, loving books, getting free books. It's awesome. It's what we've worked so hard for,” said Eli Tannenbaum, another student who worked on the project.
The teens involved in the OCRA elective, which produced the book depot, were able to consult officials and experts to help build their project and make it effective.
“You start seeing issues that you never really would have seen outside of the class without focusing on it and spending time out of your day to really look outside of what you know and look for issues everywhere in your community,” Griffin McIntyre said about how the class helped him and the other students see their community’s needs in a different way.
While the teens provided a needed service for their neighbors, they were also gaining important life skills for themselves, as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Annie Ward explained.
“[They develop] the vision of community and of service, but also a real array of powerful skills: communication skills, presentation skills, advocacy,” Ward said. “That will serve them in whatever life path they take.”
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