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Students collect, donate books for kids in need
5:02 p.m., Dec. 11, 2006--UD's Campus Alliance de la Raza (CALR), an organization committed to the upward mobility of minority populations, handed out books to children Thursday afternoon, Dec. 7, at the Latin American Community Center (LACC) in Wilmington. CALR also will donate books to the Delaware Food Bank, the Read Aloud Delaware Program, Kid's First in New Jersey and several high schools in New Orleans. The books were collected through CALR's second annual holiday book drive. Last year, CALR collected and donated more than 2,000 books. Affiliated with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), CALR held its “Sponsor a Child's Book Event,” Nov. 14-15 in the Christiana Commons. Students were given the opportunity to sign the books and leave a message for future readers. Senior Melody Casagrande, CALR executive advisor and book drive coordinator, said more than 150 books were laid out on a table for students to sign at the event. "I think that another way to encourage a young child to read is by seeing encouragement by a University student," Casagrande said. Casagrande first developed the idea of a holiday book drive in 2005 when she attended the United States Hispanic Leadership Institution Conference (USHL) in Chicago, where speakers addressed the educational differences between minorities, specifically blacks and Latinos, and the rest of the population. “A lecturer said the Latino community should encourage children to read more,” she said, “because they fall behind during the summertime and during breaks because they have a lack of reading materials in their homes." Casagrande decided to start a book drive on campus to provide young children and kids to the age of 18 with books for Christmas. She said she also decided to expand the book drive to all low-income children, because more than half of kids in low-income families do not have books. "The national average of books in school libraries is 18 books per student," she said. "Schools in impoverished communities have less than one book per student."
Makone said her mother always had books around her when she was young. "She loves books. She is an avid reader, so her books would stack up really high, and I would look around and see what's going on," Makone said. "I know that contributed to the fact that I like to read now. Those kinds of experiences [make an] impression on a young kid." Casagrande said the book drive also holds personal meaning for her. When her nephew was five years old, she said it was clear he loved to learn. She noticed a lack of educational resources in his home, so she gave him her collection of childhood Disney books. "Recent studies have shown that the availability of reading materials is a strong predicter of a child's ability to read and of academic achievement," she said. "Successful academic achievement could later have the potential of breaking the cycle of poverty." Casagrande said that Maria Palacas, director of UD's Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achivement Program, has helped her to pursue her vision of helping children who lack these resources. The donation boxes, decorated in Christmas paper, were located in the Center for Black Culture, Perkins Student Center, Room 232 in the Trabant University Center, and the Christiana Commons. CALR collected books in good to lightly used condition and any type of genre. The book drive was cosponsored by UD's McNair Scholars Program and HOLA. CALR also held a voter registration drive in the fall, during which they registered 600 new student voters. Members ran a kiosk in Trabant University Center offering registration forms to students. On Latino Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) on Oct. 2, members went door to door in Laird Campus during the evening hours to register students. CALR also held an information program on Oct. 3 in conjunction with Latino Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD). For more information about CALR, visit [http://copland.udel.edu/stu-org/CALR]. Article by Julia Parmley, AS '07
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