On Wednesday June 7, 2023 students at Douglas Gardens Elementary will participate in BookFest, a county-wide program for K-2 students to choose books to take home and read over the summer.

BookFest is part of a county-wide initiative started by United Way and Connected Lane County to address low literacy rates of Lane County students.

The program aims to prevent the “summer slide,” when students lose some of the reading gains they made during the school year, and ultimately help improve reading scores.

Over the first two weeks in May, over 14,000 books will be distributed to more than 2,700 students at 19 schools in Lane County, thanks to support from the Eugene, Bethel, Springfield, and Lane Education Foundations, as well as SELCO Community Credit Union, OCCU Foundation, the Duck Store, and Jase Simmons, Simmons Capital Management, LLC

If you would like to sign up to help with BookFest, click here to volunteer.