Bookmobile hours and location
—10 a.m. to noon Thursday at the corner of Davenport Road and Buford Highway.
— 5 to 7 p.m. July 6 at the corner of Regal Park Court and Sunset Street
— 10 a.m. to noon July 8 at the Proctor Square Apartments
— 10 a.m. to noon July 13 at Harris Elementary, 123 Claiborne Drive, Duluth
Information about the Harris Elementary bookmobile: 770- 476-2241.
Donations of books for young readers are also welcome at the school.
This summer, Courtney Bernardo’s minivan is carrying more than kids. It’s also packed with laundry baskets brimming with books she and her students at Harris Elementary in Duluth have collected for months as part of a program she started called Read, Deed, Run. And while school is out, she’s turned her wheels into a bookmobile that brings those books to neighborhoods in the school’s zone.
“A school counselor and I came up with the idea of Read, Deed, Run last year,” she said. “We wanted to start a running club but also wanted to encourage children to read. He helped me get it started, but this past year, I was on my own, working with many teachers and parents who organized and coached.”
About 50 students showed up once a week before the first bell, and while one group was running, another was reading. “That was our ‘deed’,” said Bernardo. “Older children read to younger ones; teachers read to others. Then a student told me he didn’t have any books at home. That idea was so foreign to me, but it’s a reality for many of our children. So we started a book drive.”
Students in the program devised a collection strategy and promoted the drive, eventually gathering about 2,000 books since January. Then they started giving them away to anyone who showed up before school to browse the selection.
“We had kids lined up to pick up books, but then summer came, and I hated the idea of them not having access to the books,” said Bernardo. “I remembered when I was younger, we had a bookmobile that came to our neighborhood, and I knew I wanted to do that.”
So Bernardo turned her minivan into a traveling, free library that has been traversing the Harris community since school ended.
“I asked every teacher to give me the name of one of their lowest readers, and I plotted that on a map of the school then set up bookmobile stations near those homes,” said Bernardo. “So far, we’ve reached a lot of kids – even some who aren’t from Harris but who still need books, and that’s what matters.”
Since the drive and distribution began, more than 700 books have been given away. Erin Hahn, Harris’ principal, sees the program continuing once school is back in session.
“We’ve had such great response from parents and teachers and especially the kids,” she said. “They love that these become their books – we don’t exchange or collect them. We just give them a bag, and let them fill it up. Our hope is to make this a more permanent fixture of the Harris community and expand it in years to come.”
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