Books With Diversity for Students

The Eco Brothers are raising funds for local schools requesting Little Free Libraries and books with diversity for their students. The following schools are hoping we raise enough to provide this to their schools by the end of the school year. Most schools on the list are Title 1, with a larger percentage of students on free and reduced lunch. Books are a luxury in many households but we know that owning books sets kids up for success. Please help is help the following schools -

Woodbridge Elementary

Morgan Woods Elementary

Lopez Elementary

Sligh Middle School

Davidsen Middle School

Riverview Elementary

Chiles Elementary

We've also collected money for a local school in need of a library and books for its classrooms. The Kiran C. Patel Elementary School in Temple Terrace is a tuition free, public charter school currently serving K-2nd grades and focusing on leadership and educating the whole child. They currently have 283 students with diverse cultures and would benefit from our support. The students need access to quiality books celebrating different cultures and backgrounds. Chase and Zach purchased new, books-with-diversity for the school with your donations and are making the delivery around Martin Luther King Day of Service.

I’m Chase Hartman, and in the past six years, I've donated more than 200,000 new and used books to all 50 states as part of a project we created called “read.repeat.” www.readrepeat.org and an award winning non-profit called Eco Brothers, Inc. www.ecobrothersinc.org

Our passion is collecting used books through book drives for our local county school system to be given directly to the schools’ classroom libraries or to children who might not otherwise own books. We’ve donated more than 200,000 books to kids in our county… but there’s one problem. Most of the books we present only represent a small percentage of the children attending those schools. In Hillsborough County, 35% of the students are Hispanic, and another large percentage are African American. They need to see themselves in the books they read.

We’ve donated books to 60 schools and Summer Camps in the county and visited dozens of schools, meeting thousands of children. The faces we see aren’t always the same in the books. We realized we needed to purchase high-interest books with diversity, representing the minorities in our county who make up most of the students we visit.

Studies show that only one out of 300 kids in struggling areas own books, and kids who own books do better in school. It’s our goal to give kids books that represent them! As leaders of the county's only “kid-run” book-collecting project, we hold a seat on the Hillsborough County Literacy Advisory Team. It is their goal, as well as ours, to collect high-interest books representing our county's many cultures and ethnicities. We have partnered over the last five years with Hillsborough County Public Schools, and we donate thousands of books each year for Summer Reading Packs and Back to School Packs. This year, we want to see more diversity in the packs.

Of course, we love our donations of used books, but we know this is the only way to reach the many kids whose faces aren’t represented in the popular book series. We want to introduce them to many popular book characters like EllRay Jakes, Freddie Ramos, Sofia Martinez and Little Shaq.

I have worked hard to promote literacy in our county. We've won the Hillsborough County Literacy Association’s Celebrate Literacy Award, The Barbara Hancock Literacy Award, and the state-wide Volunteer Florida Champion of Service Award. My work has been recognized by the EPA, Prudential, Points of Light, National Society of High School Scholars, Hershey and the Lightning Hockey Team. Our efforts are proven. We work hard for the kids attending Title 1 Schools in struggling areas. We appreciate your support!

Check out our Social Media pages as well:

Twitter: @readrepeatorg

Facebook: Read. Repeat.

Instagram: @readrepeatorg

readrepeat.org and ecobrothesinc.org