Our Story
It started with a random act of kindness
In 2020, a local women’s book club came together to ignite the love of reading, literacy, and community connection in local Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) students during the Covid 19 pandemic. Inspired by the Random Acts of Kindness Day by TRPA our book club sought to show kindness to young learners in our school district. Knowing all too well the hardships of social isolation, distance learning, and the extraordinary stress of life in a pandemic, we came together with the strong belief that good books can foster solace, connection, and joy. And reading good books with friends creates a shared sense of belonging and can ignite a lifelong love of reading. By talking to teachers and parents we were surprised to learn that there is an extraordinary need for classroom reading material in our school district, augmented by distance learning and the educational gaps created by the hardships of 2020. We formed Lift Literature to build community support around teachers and families to address those needs.
Our first project occurred in October 2020, where we sponsored three classrooms at a local elementary school. Together we purchased 54 books and donated them directly to the teachers, providing new reading material for the rest of the school year and beyond. Please see this presentation by Mrs. Benavidez showcasing the outcomes of that kindness project. Click here.
Our second project was with South Tahoe Middle School (STMS) for a project entitled “Lifting Spirits through Literature.” We partnered with STMS to provide over 200 books to complete classroom libraries.
During the Summer of 2021, Lift Literature sponsored its inaugural Summer Reading Challenge. Over 350 kids signed up for the challenge! Kids read over 100,000 minutes, and the top four readers in each age group received tickets to see the San Francisco Giants!