Before a student enters kindergarten in the Philadelphia school district, he or she is 1,000 books behind, according to Vice President and Chief of Staff Pedro Ramos.
But students at Penn are doing their part to change that statistic.
First Book at Penn -- a group which provides low-income students with books -- held its first book carnival Friday afternoon at Civic House.
During the two-hour event, roughly 40 children came to listen to stories and participate in crafts projects with their mentors or tutors from Penn.
The West Philadelphia Tutoring Project, PennPals and La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos were among the tutoring groups participating in the event. But students did not need a mentor to attend and the event was open to all West Philadelphia public school students.
Friday's festivities included arts and crafts activities, a read-a-loud by Ramos, a performance by the Stimulus Children's Theater, refreshments and a room full of about 300 brand new books to give away.
First Book is a national organization which aims "to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books," according to the group's Web site.
The group works with local literacy programs, like the one started at Penn in the fall of 2000.
"One of the best things about Friday's event was the way it will help us reach out to other groups on Penn's campus," College senior and First Book at Penn co-founder Linda Simon said. "We previously were not aware of ACELA, so we were thrilled when they learned of the event and contacted us about attending."
Friday's books were donated by Scholastic. First Book supports other groups such as StepOne, Penntoring, PennPals and TEACH West Philadelphia.
One of First Book's other main goals is "raising money to get our own funds so we can support other groups and kids," College junior Anne Hawkins said.
Before the children left on Friday, they were given the featured book of the carnival, Swine Lake, and another book of their choice.
Simon said she "was really happy with how the First Book Carnival turned out... There were a lot of kids in attendance, and I think they really enjoyed the activities... The kids were so excited to get new books, especially since they could choose what they wanted."
Hawkins said she hopes the carnival "will become an annual thing," and that "it will allow us to help more programs and kids in this area in the long term."
