Spoiler alert: my call to action is to ask you to get involve in spreading the love of reading to a kid near and dear to you in any way that you can.
Can you remember what sparked your love for reading? I sure can. At seven, my mom captivated me with poetry during a train ride from Chicago to Sacramento. I vividly remember the rhythm of the words and the message of the story. They inspired me to read, always looking for the message and magic I might find. More recently, I started listening to audio books and delighted in the voices that spoke the written page, just like long ago.
My call to action is inspired by the annual Book on Every Bed campaign by newspaper advice columnist Amy Dickenson. In this year’s campaign announcement, she shared that she was motivated:
- By author David McCullough who as a child would wake up on Christmas morning to a wrapped book left by Santa on the foot of his bed.
- By her mother who told her that with a book you are never alone, and modeled what she said, even reading at basketball games.
- By her own experience reading in the hallowed space of the Local library.
- By her own literary heroes, who spontaneously told stories about the childhood book that changed their life; who were lucky to have at least one adult in their lives who gave them the gift of reading.
Last Christmas, Amy worked with the Children’s Reading Connection (childrensreadingconnection.org), a national literacy campaign. She had the thrill of her career as a reader and writer by giving books to each child, teacher and staff member of her childhood primary school.
Dolly Parton, another personal hero, started the Imagination Library that is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland. She believes that the seeds of kid’s dreams are often found in books and the seeds we help plant in our community can grow across the world.
In Chicagoland, BERNIE’S BOOK BANK supplies free quality books to children to build personal libraries. With the help of hundreds of volunteers and donors each year, Bernie’s Book Bank is transforming children’s stories.
As part of my legacy, I’m passing on this tradition to my family and community by gifting holiday books to my family’s kids and supporting Bernie’s Book Bank.
Call to action: Discover your unique way to share a story or a book with a kid in your life. Thank you!
Chuck Scharenberg, the brain behind More Profit More Freedom, guides first-year C-suite leaders in making their mark – crafting unified teams and robust infrastructures that propel their businesses forward.