PHOTO BY BENAY HICKS
people &places
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PHOTO BY BENAY HICKS
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNEKE OPPEWAL
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Pages of Promise BY LENA MIANO P HOTO G RA P H Y B Y SCOTT VAN MANE N
Children’s literacy nonprofit Book Harvest hosted its 13th annual Dream Big Book Drive and Community Celebration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Golden Belt Campus. The event brought dozens of community partners – including The Bull City Woodshop, Durham Parks & Recreation, Communities in Schools of Durham, Durham‘s Partnership for Children, Gift of Knowledge Academy, More To Learn Tutoring, Museum of Life and Science, The Wonder Lab and GoDurham – and more than 2,000 visitors to the historic campus, honoring MLK’s legacy of service to others and vision for all children to have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Community members were asked to contribute new or gently used children’s books for Book Harvest to distribute to families across Durham; the event gathered 20,435 donated books, adding to the 63,636 total number of books donated during the entirety of the drive, which ran from December through January. Attendees also had the chance to meet Wool E. Bull, enjoy a performance by the Bouncing Bulldogs jump-rope team, participate in a Paperhand Puppet Intervention parade and more. The Mad Popper and B3 Coffee served up popcorn and hot chocolate, respectively, while the Poetry Fox wrote poems on the spot for guests, and families harvested 1,995 children’s books to take home and keep forever. 3
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1 Book Harvest founding CEO Ginger Young and Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams. 2 Book Harvest team members Alisa Miller, Gisela Mora Hernandez, Anneke Oppewal, Gia Parker, Emma Beeler and Amy Franks. 3 Book Harvest COO Jeff Quinn and Book Harvest Director of Advocacy Mary Mathew. 4 Museum of Life and Science Program Manager of Community and School Engagement Stepheny Hine-Laverack and Julia Dorn. 5 Book Harvest Donor Relations Manager Zarria Bratts.