Each month we spotlight a local nonprofit with our KGUN 9 Giving project. Once again for September, we’re featuring a campaign near and dear to our hearts: the Scripps Howard Fund’s If You Give a Child a Book .
We’re raising funds to buy books for elementary students from a low-income elementary school right here in Tucson.
Julie Gates is a long-time first grade teacher at Nash Elementary, and knows the excitement her students feel when they receive free books as part of the annual campaign and book giveaway:
Pat Parris: “It’s almost like Christmas for these kids?”
Julie Gates: “Absolutely, yeah.”
For the past two years, every student in every grade at Nash, a Title I school in the Amphi District , has received between six and eight free books.
It’s a difficult time for some of these families, and books take a back seat to essentials.