Last fall, TODAY'S TMJ4, Newsradio 620 WTMJ, and KTI Country held a Give A Child A Book campaign.
Employees donated money to buy books for children in need.
The Scripps Howard Foundation matched the donations and on National Reading Day, we donated more than 2,300 books to Next Door.
The books are for kids ages zero to five and each will go to the families of kids at Next Door.
"They come, get to read with someone as wonderful as you guys, and then they get to pick one book that they keep forever and ever and ever as we say," says Missy Hodzinski, Books for Kids implementer at Next Door.
Shannon Sims, Charles Benson, Jake and Tanner, Gene Mueller and other employees volunteered to read on donation day.
"One of the biggest things about being a part of Scripps is that they give back to the community," says Brian O'Farrell, integrated account executive for TODAY'S TMJ4. "It makes you feel good, like you're making a difference."
Anyone can volunteer to read to the children, and Next Door is always accepting new or gently used books.
"Dinosaurs are sure-fire wins," says Hodzinski. "Pete the Cat we all love but you know the classics like Eric Carle and reading anything about trains and things that have puppets in them," she added.
She says it's a simple gift that means so much, "it means so much to us as a program to receive this many brand new books for our kids but then also the families. I know they get really excited to have those resources at home."
For more information about volunteering or donating books visit: https://www.nextdoormke.org/
Be sure and try our new SNOWCAST APP! It is the "snow equivalent to STORM SHIELD" - a great new product that gives you high resolution snow forecasts for any part of the nation! It has just been introduced for iPhones, but we are working on the Android version! Just search SNOWCAST in the App Store or click here.
