by Joe Nolting | Apr 2, 2020 | Blog Posts
Kids Need Books is sidelined until the COVID-19 crisis abates. In the meantime, here’s a story from last spring. It’s the weekly book distribution at Alderwood Elementary School. The frail, nine-year-old girl’s thin hair is as fine as silk. She walks along... 
by Joe Nolting | Mar 26, 2020 | Blog Posts
The familiar world we once knew has come tumbling down—replaced by the fear and uncertainty of a rapidly spreading and potentially lethal virus. People are “sheltering in place,” as if this were a live shooter drill in school. Only it isn’t. It’s real and the killer... 
by Joe Nolting | Mar 19, 2020 | Blog Posts
The Latina mom moved along the tables picking out books for her three children, all under six years of age. Tonight her kids had stayed home, which allowed her to linger over the books, and savor the peace of being unencumbered, if only for a brief while. She held... 
by Joe Nolting | Feb 21, 2020 | Blog Posts
My brother Tom (in Colorado) hoped to get Kids Need Books national recognition and he did a lot of work to make it happen—completed application forms, contacted references, and made a slew of phone calls. I was surprised and touched when he called. Soon I learned that... 
by Joe Nolting | Jan 9, 2020 | Blog Posts
Peggy first stopped by the Kids Need Books’ table in early July of 2016. At the time KNB was a nascent program operating on Thursday evenings at a single location—the Alderwood Elementary School popup food bank. We had an inventory of a few hundred books. Peggy’s... 
by Joe Nolting | Jul 10, 2019 | Blog Posts
The Alderwood pop-up food bank and book distribution are outdoors this evening. The sky is the color of a robin’s eggs and a warm breeze drifts across the parking lot into the covered playground where a dozen volunteers unload crates of food. The food bank won’t open...
