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Sunday, April 27, 2025 | Special Advertising Section4By Noemi Arellano SummerThe Bulletin, Bend, Ore.An Oregon children%u2019s literacy nonprofit and SELCO Community Credit Union are partnering for the second time, running a book drive to gather books for kids to read this summer.SMART Reading, a statewide nonprofit, ensures kids have access to books and time to read them. It began in Portland and Central Oregon in 1992, and organizers are focused on improving literacy rates throughout the state by providing books and help with literacy skills. The nonprofit typically collects board books, early chapter books, picture books and chapter books.%u201cSo, just by getting books into kids%u2019 hands and getting them, you know, starting that personal library can really get them to be stronger readers,%u201d said Amy Luther, Central Oregon program manager for SMART Reading. %u201cAnd I would just add to that that one of the things we%u2019re really excited about right now is that we have this opportunity with the expansion of the book bank into communities outside of Portland to do more than we%u2019ve been doing.%u201dGently used books are sorted, cleaned and gifted to local kids. Volunteers help clean the books of pencil or pen marks, fix ripped pages, cover inscriptions, remove stickers and more. The goal is to get the books in like-new condition, so they can feel like gifts.SMART Reading, which runs several programs in Central Oregon, has partnered with Culver Elementary for this program, and is working to find partners for books meant for preschoolaged kids and middle schoolers. The nonprofit is planning a spring book fair for Culver students to choose books for the summer.%u201cLast year%u2019s book drive was actually a really big success, which we were excited about, especially for the first year of that partnership in the book drive, since we were able to collect over 400 new and recently used children%u2019s books,%u201d said Luther. %u201cAnd so it%u2019s really a great opportunity for folks to give ... books that their family has outgrown that can give a new life to have them join a new child. And we just ask that they%u2019re in good condition and they don%u2019t have %u2026 missing pages or water damage, that kind of thing that we can%u2019t fix up.%u201dSMART Reading is looking to expand its programs in Central Oregon and partnered with SELCO Community Credit Union in Central Oregon and Eugene. The organization wants to partner with other businesses in the region.%u201cA couple years ago, we were in the process of merging with The Children%u2019s Book Bank and talking with lots of our partners about the opportunity that this would present for us to be bringing this programming that %u2026 previously had only existed in the Portland metro area to communities across the state,%u201d said Phoebe Petersen, communications director. %u201cAnd SELCO was really excited about the book bank possibility. They really love getting their members involved in directly supporting nonprofits and education is one of their focus areas.%u201dSMART Reading runs 22 school-based programs in the state, where volunteers read with students in kindergarten through third grade weekly and students are allowed to select two books a month to keep to build their home libraries.%u201cI think, particularly with Oregon%u2019s current literacy rates, we%u2019re seeing 40% of third graders meeting reading benchmarks, so 60% are not,%u201d said Petersen. %u201cWe really see it as an opportunity and a responsibility for us to be leaning in and asking ourselves what more can we be doing to be impacting literacy rates in Oregon, and this is a way that just so many community members can get involved, look at their bookshelves, see what books they have and help make a difference for other kids in the community.%u201d Donating books provides access to educational materials and helps improve literacy rates. (Getty Images) %u009c%u0098%u00ab%u00c0%u009cw%u00cc%u0003V%u009c%u008f%u008fiV%u00cc%u00c3%u0003L%u009c%u009c%u008e%u00c3for summer reading