Two Coral Springs Schools Get 1,400 Books From Marjory Stoneman Douglas Students

Coral Springs, Florida –  Students at two Coral Springs schools have received more than 1,400 books, thanks to a summer book drive project by two Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students.

According to the Broward County Public Schools, the MSD students — sophomores Olivia Alvarez and Spencer Brenner — collected 1,800 books in all.

The students gave most of the books in five-book bundles to students at James S. Hunt Elementary School at 7800 NW 35 Court and Coral Springs Pre K – 8 at 3601 NW 110 Avenue during the district’s grab-and-go meal pickups.

Experts say younger children need to have access to books, especially at home, to keep up with reading levels. That’s even more true for children in less-affluent schools.

According to research from Family and Community Engagement Research Compendium: “Because low-income children have limited access to books, they also likely miss out on the stimulating parent-child interactions around books and stories, in particular, the read-aloud. And without the read-aloud, children are deprived of the opportunity to learn about their world, acquire more sophisticated vocabulary beyond their everyday language, and understand how decontextualized language works, which is the beginning of abstracting information from print.

In addition to giving books to the two schools, the MSD students also donated 350 books to the Literacy Connection, Inc. They also gave the 60 remaining books to the retirement community, Aston Gardens, in Parkland.

Both students had hoped to collect 500 books but ended up gathering 1,800 books, according to a summary of the project on the school district’s website.

It wasn’t clear how the students collected the books.

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