UGI Utilities donated an extra 10,000 books for young readers in the School District of Lancaster who are stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The books are part of the district’s Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program, the nation’s largest literacy non-profit. RIF enables students to select new, age-appropriate books to take home and own. Typically, students receive a book three times during the school year.
The gift allows SDoL to distribute two new books to each of the hundreds of elementary students participating in the district’s free summer programs. The remainder will be distributed when students return to school.
“UGI is very pleased to support student literacy during these difficult times,” said Keith Dorman, UGI Vice President of Communications and Community Relations. “We recognize that summer slide may have started early this year due to the pandemic and want to provide children with the opportunity to continue to read, grow and explore the world through books.”
UGI has partnered with Reading Is Fundamental to distribute books to students since 1991. In the past 29 years, the UGI-RIF partnership has provided approximately 100,000 books for SDoL students.
“Reading is a wonderful way to engage children while they may be home,” said Jessica Sherman, SDoL’s elementary literacy and social studies coordinator. “We are grateful to UGI and RIF for providing these resources to help get books into the hands of children in these uncertain times.”