By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

A local organization and Woodland Mall have partnered to promote reading through the One Book, One County initiative.

“Meeting families where they are has always been important to us,” said Family Futures Partnership Coordinator Susi Alonso. “Our partnership with the Woodland Mall is allowing us to better serve our Kent County families by being present somewhere they can easily access us.”

The nonprofit Family Futures will be distributing the book “The Caring Me I Want to Be” by Mary DiPalermo on select Fridays and Saturdays in June. There is a limited supply of the books.

The One County, One Book initiative was kicked off by the Great Start Parent Coalition’s Nurturing Parent Power Workshop at the end of March. The goal of the initiative is to distribute 9,000 books to families.

Along with the book, the campaign provided a calendar of activities parents could use to engage their children based on the book such as writing a letter to a friend telling them why you like them or going outside and counting all the different signs of spring. The calendar will be available during the book distributions at Woodland Mall.

More than 20 local organizations participated in the program to help distribute the books, which includes Family Futures, a nonprofit that works to create communities in which all children are supported to achieve their full potential. The organization does this by supporting families with children ages 0-5. Family Futures works with parents to understand their children’s development, supporting them every step of the way and connecting them to resources when needed.

Family Futures and Woodland Mall have been working together since April. Family Futures has been tabling at different locations throughout the mall and handing out sensory bottles, toys, and connecting families to Connections and Healthy Families Kent County, it’s two main programs. Family Futures was also the recipient of a $1,000 donation from the Woodland Mall from a social media fundraising effort.

“We are fortunate to have an ongoing partnership with Family Futures, an organization that provides great programming for families,” said Woodland Mall/PREIT Interim Senior Marketing Director Mike Ross. “We are thankful that they are able to provide experiences for our shoppers and we love hearing the laughter and seeing the smiles from the children in the mall when they are engaging with the families.”