July 10, 2014
Five years ago, Melaney Smith encountered a second-grader who wasn’t looking forward to summer break. The reason? She would lose free access to books! Summer slide, or the decrease in reading achievement over summer vacation, is often simply the result of students not having enough to read at home. Determined to help, Melaney founded Books for Keeps, a nonprofit organization that provides twelve books to each student at participating public schools in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. In …