Temperatures were cold on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but about 20 volunteers in Suttons Bay set out to warm hearts.
Play, Write, and Read! (PoWeR!), with help from the local Hagerty Insurance Agency staff and Traverse City West Senior High School students, packed about 2,000 bags with books and other items for young children.
These bags will be delivered to families enrolled in the Maternal Infant Help Program across northern Michigan, including Leelanau County, through PoWeR!’s partnerships with county health departments.
PoWeR! was founded by Kara Gregory, and she helped coordinate volunteers at the PoWeR! volunteer center at 101 Dame St. and the Suttons Bay-Bingham District Library a couple blocks away.
Gregory’s organization not only delivers books to children but also tries to set them up for long-term success by teaching them to value reading. Volunteers put books, journals, writing materials, and sensory toys and puppets in every bag, plus childhood development resources for their families.
PoWeR! presents a variety of materials and allows children to choose which books they want for themselves. Gregory believes that giving children the opportunity to choose their own books is more effective than simply receiving them as gifts, based on her research in child ecology.
Many of the volunteers packing bags Monday were Hagerty employees and their families. One of them, Kasey Smith, has helped fill PoWeR! book bags before.
“I found out about it (PoWeR!) through Hagerty —it was one of the initiatives they posted about availability doing. I think what resonates with me is that I grew up in a household that read. My mother was an elementary school librarian, so we always had books around,” Smith said.
“I think this is one of those things where, when you find it, it just makes your heart really happy,” she said.
PoWeR! has regular volunteer opportunities, including delivering books to participating sites, sewing book bags, and tying finger puppets for the bags. More information is available on the nonprofit organization’s website, powerbookbags.org.
