‘We have not stopped mailing books,’ says group’s president
Kids Ferst, a nonprofit childhood literacy group that’s the Gilmer County affiliate of the statewide Ferst Readers program, is still functioning and providing books to local children.
However, the group’s new registrations and fundraising efforts have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic began, noted the local nonprofit’s president.
“Improving childhood literacy in Gilmer County is our sole mission. With the pandemic, we haven’t been able to register children, conduct fundraisers or read to children at locations around the county, but we have not stopped mailing books,” said Judy Serritella, Kids Ferst president.
Public events, festivals and school functions are the main places where the organization normally registers parents for the program, which provides one free book a month to children till they turn five.
“We usually go to the fair and have a booth set up there. We’re usually at the Apple Festival, as well as the Fourth of July and St. Petrick’s Day parades. Once a month, on Saturday, we would go to the park and register kids. We go to open houses and new teacher orientations and we’ve even walked up to total strangers in the grocery store and talked to them about the program. Of course, none of that has been happening, so our new registrations are down,” Serritella said.
In May, the group mailed out 1,250 books. In June and July, that number decreased to a little more than 1,100. Those counts would normally be higher, Serritella noted.
“Since we’ve been in existence, we’ve sent out almost 164,000 books (in total). It’s wonderful for this little county to be able to do that,” she added. “People can still sign their children up to receive books online and the program is free to Gilmer children when their parents register them.”
This year’s lack of events, gatherings and festivals also means a decrease in fundraising, Seritella said. The group had hoped to bring back a Johnny Cash tribute band, who last performed a fundraising concert here in 2017, for that same purpose. That event is also off for now, she noted.
Kids Ferst relies on grants and donations to facilitate the book-by mail program. Despite being a nonprofit entity, the group is responsible for all postage costs incurred and that accounts for one of its biggest expenses, Serritella confirmed.
“The postage gets pretty expensive,” she said. “Ferst Readers was started by Robin Ferst in 1999 and the Gilmer Chapter was formed in 2007. The books are chosen statewide and we send our money to (Ferst Readers) in Madison, Ga. It stays in our account and the (books) come out of Madison.”
To offset that dip in fundraising and donations, the group recently started its 10x360 Program through which donors can pledge to make recurring contributions.
“We are trying to get 360 people to give $10 a month. It currently costs about $36 a year to provide one child with one book a month for an entire year,” said Serritella. “We don’t ask (registered) parents for donations. We want to raise the money ourselves and have sponsors. Many civic groups and organizations help Kids Ferst and there are also local educators who participate in a payroll deduction program and donate monthly. We are extremely grateful (for that). We know that organizations are hurting and people are hurting right now, but we still need (additional) help to keep the program going.”
Members of the local Kids Ferst Community Action Team normally meet the third Friday of each month at Gilmer Head Start, but those meetings are temporarily on hold.
Even though the efforts of volunteers are limited right now, the nonprofit still can still use more volunteers, Serritella confirmed.
“When we get right side up in the world again, we’d love to have new volunteers come to the meetings and bring new ideas,” she said. “Our volunteers are mostly retired people, but some are not. We have retired educators, retired military and people from all walks of life. We are not meeting in person right now and we’ve had (some) Zoom meetings. We usually meet at 10 a.m., but we can be flexible if someone is working and can’t meet at that time.”
How to register, donate, volunteer
Parents can register their children to receive books at FerstReaders.org. Registration only has to be done once and books will be mailed monthly until the registered child graduates out of the program at age five.
Ferst Readers also has a “grandparent program” for grandparents whose grandchildren don’t live in Gilmer County or even in Georgia, Serritella said.
“There is a small fee associated with the grandparent’s program,” she added.
Anyone who would like to join the Kids Ferst CAT, make a donation or sign up for the group’s 10x360 Program should visit the Facebook page for Kids Ferst in Gilmer County, Serritella noted.
“They can send us a private message on our Facebook page or post something on there saying they’re interested,” she confirmed.