PTA has students Hooked on Books!

Children at Kaegebein Elementary School hunted over tables covered with paperbacks last Friday in search of that perfect book.

The books were free, thanks to the Kaegebein PTA and Hooked on Books!, a program created with the intent to provide free reading material for children, some of whom may never have owned their own book.

For Kaegebein PTA President Sue Wolcott, loading up hundreds of books and delivering them to the school may be a chore, but the fun is in watching students choose.

Hooked on Books! is a program similar to a partnership the school had with RIF that recently ended. "PTA still wanted kids to have the benefit of having free books," Wolcott said. The goal of the program is to establish lifelong readers, Wolcott added.

Money raised from such fundraisers as the annual Kaegebein Family Fun Night supports the PTA's purchase of between 800 and 1,000 books for children, Wolcott said. "This is one of our bigger programs," she added.

Pictured are students at Kaegebein Elementary School, from left, Maddie Mesmer, Bethany Wolcott, Gia Dilimone and Miranda Proctor, were the beneficiaries of free books thanks to the Kaegebein PTA's involvement in "Hooked on Books!"