Last modified Wed., May 09, 2007 - 01:24 PM
Originally created Thursday, May 10, 2007

Navy volunteers help with national book drive

By Kaylee LaRocque, Editor

From left, SK2(SW) Cassandra Pertillo of the NAS Jax Security Department, SKSN Timothy Brown of Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron 26 and MA1(SW/AW) Quincy Williams of the NAS Jax Security Department, load boxes into a vehicle during the annual book drive organized by First Book and The Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation to benefit area children May 3. Photos by Kaylee LaRocque

Navy personnel from several NAS Jax Departments turned out last week to help with the annual book drive sponsored by the non-profit, national organization First Book and The Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation. The groups of volunteers spent hours organizing, packaging and loading books into vehicles so the books could be delivered to children of low-income families in the local area. The event has been held each spring since 2003.

"The Navy volunteers have helped us immensely this week. What probably what would have taken three days to do, took them a day. They helped get the books organized and ready for our recipients to pick up so we can get the books out in the community," said Tabitha Blackwell, manager of First Book. "This year we are distributing 130,000 books which is a little more than last year. We have more than 40 organizations picking up books and for a lot of them, it's their first time. So we are really getting the word out. We want more groups to register next year, so we can help more children."

This year's event was held at Priority Courier on Phillips Highway. "We really appreciate them letting us use their facility. The loading docks really helped because the recipients could just drive up and our volunteers loaded them up," added Blackwell.

Several NAS Jax Sailors were part of the distribution team last Thursday. "We're here to help distribute books to less fortunate kids in the Jax community. It was an awesome event last year and I jumped at the opportunity to do it again this year," said MA1(SW/AW) Quincy Williams, volunteer coordinator for the NAS Jax Security Department.

SKSN Timothy Brown of Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron 26, and PS2 Yvette Junius of Personnel Support Detachment Jax, hand boxes of books to other volunteers during the book drive May 3.

"I'm here to give back to the community. I have two small children and they love to read, so I would love to see every other child read. My chief sent out an email asking for volunteers so I immediately signed up to help," added PS2 Yvette Junius of Personnel Support Detachment Jax. "I've been have been carrying and loading boxes into the different vehicles that show up. This is my first time doing this. It's fun and it's a good cause."

First Book was founded in 1992 when they distributed 12,000 books to three communities. Since then, they have distributed more than 40 million books to children in more than1,300 communities around the country.