Begin with Books Looks to Open Chapter in West Ashley

When should you start reading to your child? Now! Right now and as much as possible. It doesn’t matter if your little one is a day old or three years old, reading is one of the most important activities parents can do with their child. And to make this all-too-important learning and bonding activity easier for even the busiest parents, Janet Segal and Patty Bennett are happy to send your child a free book once a month no matter what until the age of five.
The program is called Begin with Books, a division of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Open to all children regardless of financial status, Begin with Books is managed by local branches that set up the program by zip code. Since 2010, Segal and Bennett have been working their way through Charleston county, establishing Begin with Books programs in each municipality starting with some of the more rural and lower income neighborhoods. And now they’re looking to serve the 29407 zip code in West Ashley.
“We’re really excited about our growth [since 2010]. We’ve doubled every year in terms of geography and children enrolled in the program. Today we have 2,079 children enrolled and, once we start with West Ashley, we’re hoping to go up another 2000. That’s 33,512 books in three years. Today we’re mailing out 2000 books a month and enrollment is going up every month,” says Bennett.
The biggest hurdle for Bennett and Segal, however, is the initial implementation of the program in a new zip code. To start serving the West Ashley area, Begin with Books needs to raise $56,000 on top of a generous $30,000 donation already provided by the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust. This $86,000 budget allows the program to get a strong two year start in the community and hopefully gives them enough time to set up regular annual support from the community at large.
“We want this program to go on indefinitely. Not one year, not five years; this is a forever program and we need the community to help us sustain it,” says Bennett.
And while a yearly budget of $43,000 may sound like a lot, Bennett points out that this amount sponsors 1500 children who each receive 12 books a year. If you break it down by individual participants, this means it only costs $33 a year to not only build a child’s library but also to exponentially increase his or her vocabulary and listening skills in order to better prepare them for school.
“The program improves the educational experience for all children. The most effective thing about it and why it’s so much more successful than other book programs is because it occurs over such a long time. Children are eligible from the day they’re born to their fifth birthday and the books arrive every month without the parents having to do anything. By the time children are eighteen months old, they’re already recognizing that the book is theirs and look forward each month to getting a new one in the mail. It helps build up excitement about reading way before a child gets to school,” says Bennett.
With the goal of having the new West Ashley program in place by the end of the school year – spring 2014 – Segal and Bennett will be holding informational meetings at the Black Bean Company, 1529 Savannah Highway, on Tuesday, January 14, from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday, January 15, from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. The meeting will include additional information about the program as well as how area organizations can help the West Ashley branch meet its spring goal.
“The difference a good educational start makes not only in a child’s life but also in economics is huge. One statistic I learned recently was that for every year a child is read to at least fifteen minutes a day, that child’s income later in life increases by $50,000. You’re making a $250,000 gift just by reading to him every day. It’s extraordinary and it shows just how much reading really matters,” says Bennett.
 
For more information about Begin with Books, visit www.beginwithbooks.org, email beginwithbooks@gmail.com or call Janet Segal at 843-573-0694. The program is happy to take donations in any amount and checks may be sent to Begin with Books, P.O. Box 183, Charleston, SC 29402, or may be donated online on the website. For designation of the donation amount, please indicate “29407” on the check remittance line.