Thursday marked National Reading Day, a country-wide push to get kids across the country to read, and a Valley non-profit that links children in the state's foster care system with loving, stable homes celebrated with a large book donation.
About 4,000 books were collected through the ABC15 and Scripps Howard Foundation's "If You Give a Kid a Book" campaign.
It’s National Reading Day! Special thanks to the @ScrippsHowardFd and its donation of 4,000 books to @AZChild Association. The books will be handed out to foster kids in AZ. #GiveAChildABook pic.twitter.com/DJ6OIRwovV
— Justin Pazera (@justinpazera) January 23, 2020
"Foster kids, a lot of times are behind academically when they're coming into the homes and so these books are an important way to kind of jump start and help them, kind of keep them on track and get them back to where they should be," said Katie Hernandez, the non-profit's foster care and adoption supervisor.
"It also builds attachment when the foster parents are reading to the children. Their arms around them, they're sitting close to them. It just builds that bond that we want them to have with the kids," she added.
Last year, Arizona's Children Association helped about 1,000 children in Arizona's foster care system.