The Park and Read project, which gives donated books to communities in need, was started 6 years ago by Mickey Ditmore and her husband.
“The project impacts families in communities that may have limited access to resources. Through Park and Read, children of various ages have access to a wide variety of literature which in turn helps with reading comprehension and vocabulary expansion,” said Ditmore.
Ditmore was inspired by a public library she saw during a 2014 trip to New York City with her husband. The library “had taken carts of books and placed them outside in Bryant Park where children were playing,” she said.
“It made so much sense to me! It inspired me to create this program in Lodi with a focus on communities that are often overlooked,” Ditmore said.
Ditmore also worked at the Lodi Public Library at the time, which gave her easy access to books the library was getting rid of. It seemed like a great way to not let the books go to waste.
Before the pandemic, Ditmore had a set routine of how she got the books into the hands of children which involved her being able to interact with the kids.
“Pre-COVID, I would take my cart of books out to parks and invite kids to take as many as they’d like. Often times they’d stay close by and read their new (to them) books, and we’d end up talking about the book or having an impromptu story time. It was a lot of fun to interact with the kids and talk about literature,” said Ditmore.
As much as everything else this changed after the pandemic, she could no longer interact with the kids as she did before and had to come up with new ways of getting the books out to them.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have not done a park gathering and I have missed it tremendously. Instead, I have parked my cart in front of my house and posted in local Facebook groups for families to come check out the little book cart,” said Ditmore.
She has also been able to find partnerships during the pandemic through a Facebook group she is a part of, some of which have led to increased donations.
Ditmore and her husband’s Park and Read project is currently partnered with the Lodi and Galt Starbucks.
“The Starbucks partnership is fantastic! I am in a few local Facebook groups with a lot of great local folks, and it just so happened the person that manages all of the Lodi and Galt Starbucks stores saw the Migrant Center library project and wanted to get involved,” she said.
The new partnership is set to last through the month of April and Starbuck customers can leave their book donations in the donations basket. This partnership has gained traction and recognition for the Park and Read project, as more and more people see the basket and are compelled to donate themselves.
The project has done well through the partnership as Ditmore has picked up book donations recently at a Starbucks in Lodi and she says the donations made were able to fill up her trunk with about 100 books.
As for any previous partnerships the Park and Read project has remained busy before and during the pandemic. One partnership that was very important and close to the heart of Ditmore took place just last month.
“Last month we partnered with a local Girl Scout Troop and Changing Faces Theater Company to build, paint, stock, and erect a free little library at the Harney Lane Migrant Center,” Ditmore said. She also described this project as a “personal passion” as she is the daughter of immigrants herself, she felt very grateful to be able to give back to this particular community.
Now people looking to donate their books can drop them off in the little library at the migrant center.
“Our goal is to continue to work to expand literacy by making books more accessible and finding ways to make reading exciting,” Ditmore said. “We are getting ready to start building another little library to place on the East Side of Lodi this summer. I am hopeful that we will be able to start gathering in parks again soon and we look forward to our continued community partnerships.”
For more information on how and where to donate children’s books visit parkandreadlodi on Instagram.