April 21, 2022
Book Harvest is committed to working alongside parents by ensuring they have spaces to make their voices heard — including seats on our Board of Directors and various committees — and by partnering with them to help the organization grow. The majority of the parents who work alongside Book Harvest are current or former Book Babies parents.
One of our biggest parent-supported efforts is the building and painting of the custom bookshelves we give to every Book Babies family. We are so grateful to the parents who help us with this work…we need 100 made each year! Plus, it is a real pleasure for Book Harvest to compensate them for their time and talent.
This is how two fathers, Yamzir Ayala and Angel Pina, feel about using their abilities and skills to give back to Book Harvest and their community:
“Hello, I’m Yamzir Ayala, father of a 2021 Book Babies graduate. One way to see the happy faces of children is to paint bookshelves and help every baby in the Book Babies community have a place to put the books they give them for language development. And I am giving back some of the help they gave my daughter for so many years — seeing the joy of having her own bookshelves.
The work of painting the shelves was a great opportunity for me to share my time with the Book Babies community, with the satisfaction of seeing the children happy and excited.”
*The original quote, which was published in the Book Babies spring newsletter, is in Spanish below.
“Hello my name is Angel. I am married and have 2 beautiful children, 11 and 3 years old. We have the honor of being in the Book Babies program thanks to my 3-year-old daughter who has the fortune of obtaining the support of Book Babies, which encourages reading in our children.
As a parent, I volunteer to build small bookcases for our children. It is something that I do in the afternoons in my free time and so I can earn extra money since there are funds to be able to invite our community and make this project possible.”
*The original quote, which was published in the Book Babies spring newsletter, is in Spanish below.
Thank you to Yamzir and Angel for sharing their skills, time, and talent with Book Harvest! We are so grateful to them, and to all of the parents who partner with us to build up this community.
“Hola, soy Yamzir Ayala, padre de un bebe de Book Babies graduado en el año 2021. Es mi placer pintar estanterías y ayudar a cada bebé en la comunidad de Book Babies a tener un lugar para colocar los libros que les dan, para su desarrollo en el idioma y devolverles un poco de la ayuda que le dieron a mi hija durante tantos años. Tan pronto como me enteré de que necesitaban continuar con este trabajo, fue una gran oportunidad para mí compartir mi tiempo con la comunidad de Book Babies.”
“Hola mi nombre es Ángel, soy de México. Tengo 16 años viviendo aquí en los Estados Unidos. Estoy casada y tengo 2 hermosos hijos, uno de 11 y 3 años. Tenemos el honor de estar en este programa de Book Babies gracias a mi hija de 3 años que tiene la fortuna de conseguir el apoyo de Book Babies para fomentar su lectura. Como padre, me ofrezco como voluntario para construir pequeños libreros para nuestros hijos e hijas. Los invito como padres a apoyarnos con la hermosa experiencia de construir libreros para los niños de nuestra comunidad. Es algo que hago por las tardes en mi tiempo libre y así puedo ganar un dinero extra ya que hay fondos para poder invitar a nuestra comunidad y hacer posible este proyecto.”