A Hall County student recently bought books for every student in her grade level in celebration of Read Across America Day.
Ava Hernandez, a second grader at World Language Academy Elementary School, collaborated with sponsors through her small business, Miss Book Buddies, to encourage literacy among her classmates.
WLA Principal, Beverly Moody, told AccessWDUN that Hernandez began raising money in December 2023 when she asked Moody if she could provide a book to each of her peers.
“She actually worked with businesses and went out and got sponsors to be able to use that money that donors and sponsors gave to her to purchase a book for every student in the second grade,” Moody explained.
Hernandez was able to purchase 118 Dr. Seuss books for each second grader to take home, and passed them out to students on March 1.
“She was able to share with each class what she had done.. that she had this little business called ‘Miss Book Buddies’, and that she wanted to share books with others,” Moody said. “She had a sticker that showed all the businesses that she had spoken to, to be able to get the donations, and then she was able to let the students choose a Dr. Seuss book to take home with them.”
Moody also shared Hernandez's initiative demonstrated values echoed by the school to its students.
“That love of reading and literacy has been a focus for us this year,” Moody said. “ But one of the things our mission and vision here in our schools is that we want students to be bilingual, biliterate and multicultural caring citizens. And I felt like Ava showed a lot of caring, being able to share books with others and to be able to reach out to the community to get support to be able to share those books with her classmates. That was a great example of what a ‘Toro’ is, and what we expect from our students. “
