KOHLER – More than two dozen boxes of books lined a Kohler High School hallway Jan. 17 as junior Riley Holzrichter and her mom Molly consolidated the collection, in preparation for a drive to Milwaukee.
The books were donated from Kohler Elementary School classrooms through Riley’s sixth biennial book drive to benefit Books for Kids, aimed at increasing access to books and improving literacy. It’s part of Next Door Foundation, a Milwaukee-based early childhood education and family services organization.
“I know they’re so grateful for all of our donations,” Riley said. “I really care about literacy and children’s literacy. I love English and writing.”
Riley started the book drive with her sister McKenna, now a sophomore at St. Mary’s College in Indiana, when she was 8 years old. It started when Molly asked them to sort out books they no longer wanted before Christmas. She suggested they donate them to Books for Kids because she did a book drive for the program while working at Brady Corporation.
Literacy was an important focus in Molly’s household. In addition to teaching for four years at Milwaukee Public Schools, where said she bought many books through the Scholastic book program, she also built up a large collection before her children were born. She said she had about five to six bins’ worth.
“I just wanted to surround them with literacy,” Molly said. “I wanted to pass on that love for reading.”
Riley and McKenna were inspired to start the “Out with the Old, in with the New” book drive. It has donated more than 16,000 books over the years.
“It’s made such a great positive impact to the program,” said Missy Hodzinski, volunteer and community relations specialist at Next Door.
Next Door hosts several community drives throughout the year to provide additional resources to community members in need: an ongoing personal care drive, a school supply drive in the fall, winter gear drive in the winter, holiday gift giving drive in December and a rotating spring drive depending on needs, this year collecting diapers and wipes.
Hodzinski said the majority of community book drives take place in the Greater Milwaukee area and outlying suburbs, but said the Holzrichter family’s ability to bring “a whole community at Kohler together to support this drive says something really amazing about them as a whole.”
Books for Kids gives away 70,000 books a year, distributed through nonprofit and school partnerships, a mobile library, a community library, and onsite language and literacy programming. Hodzinski said it aims to “support the whole community and to build the at-home libraries of individuals all throughout the Greater Milwaukee community, to give access to that vital tool.”
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Employers donate to the book drive, literacy cause
Sheboygan’s Plenco donated cardboard boxes for the collection and Milwaukee’s Palermo’s Pizza, Molly’s employer, donated a pizza party for the classroom that gave the most books and two coupons to each student in the winning class.
Palermo’s also will match a 10-cent donation for each book donated to Books for Kids with a minimum $500 donation and donate all-inclusive loft tickets for a spring Milwaukee Bucks game for three students and an accompanying parent/guardian, determined in a raffle from the students who brought in the most books.
How to donate books to Next Door
Interested in donating or starting a book drive with Next Door’s Books for Kids? Contact Missy Holdzinski at [email protected].
The program accepts gently used books, primarily for children up to 5 years old. Acceptable donations include baby board books, children’s picture books, juvenile literature and parenting books. Learn more at https://www.nextdoormke.org/get-involved/booksforkids/.
Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or [email protected]. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @alexx_garner.
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