COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina First Steps is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a statewide reading event for young children across the state and started the celebrating Monday at the Edventure Children’s Museum in Columbia.
Books filled the shelves, pages turned and little ones gathered around for a story time on this special holiday
First Steps AmeriCorps members and volunteers read a short story, "I'm Almost Always Kind,” to children to promote a lifelong love of learning.
Throughout the week of Jan 15-19 these volunteers will read in over 230 preschool classrooms across the state.
“We love the story of kindness, which is why we chose this book this year. It really aligns with the message and mission of Martin Luther King Jr specifically,” Valencia Johnson said.
Johnson is the volunteer and service learning manager at First Steps and says the celebration will continue this week and the Marine Toy for Tots Foundation will provide every child in participating classroom a copy of the book. That means more than 4,000 books.
“This concept of kindness and supportive community is more than just a day. we extend out the entire week so as many first step 4-K child centers can participate as possible,” Johnson said. “It’s just an amazing week of volunteerism. It’s an amazing week of seeing kids smile and just being able to help to build their home libraries.”
Tyree White attended the event today with his six year old son, he hopes to teach him the meaning of the holiday.
“Getting them out there so they know more about MLK because you know a lot of people talk about it but they don’t put enough emphasis on it so it’s just good to get them out there during the holiday so they know what it means,” he said.