East Granby Students Use Summer Reading to Give Back

More than 200 kids of all ages from East Granby are participating in a summer program that replaces traditional rewards for reading with the opportunity to send a farm animal to a needy family in countries across the world.

is partnering with non-profit organization Heifer International to run two charitable reading programs, “Read to Feed” for younger kids and “Pass on the Gift” for older children and teens. Kids taking part in “Read to Feed” will decide whether to send a goat, pig or sheep to a needy family overseas while “Pass on the Gift” participants choose between agricultural bees, tree seedlings and flocks of geese or ducks.

The Heifer International projects provide needy families with the opportunity to add a farm animal to their holdings and promote sustainable farming.

When younger kids reach their weekly goal of 140 minutes of reading per week they receive a gold coin. Those coins are dropped into donation buckets as a vote towards sending one of the animals abroad. Older students use a similar coupon system. After the final tallies are recorded at the end of August, Heifer International will send the animal (or seedlings or bees) with the most votes in each program to a needy family.

Kathy LeBlanc, East Granby’s children’s librarian, decided to use her summer reading budget towards the charitable endeavor and move away from the usual rewards students get, like small toys or ice cream.

“They can use their reading time to give rather than receive,” LeBlanc said.

Although she wasn’t originally sure how many students would take part in the program, she’s been very happy with the turnout. The East Granby public school system has slightly fewer than 850 students, so the more than 200 participants represent a significant portion of the kids in town.

LeBlanc noted the crucial involvements of East Granby public school librarians, who screened a short film about the “Read to Feed” and “Pass on the Gift” programs to students as the school year drew to a close and encourged local children to participate.

East Granby Public Library Director Lisa Salazar spoke of the programs in glowing terms.

“I think we’re teaching the kids about giving – that’s huge,” Salazar said.

To learn more about Heifer International, visit its website.