Courtesy of Paul Gornowski, Holy Family SID

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Last week the Holy Family University department of athletics completed its most successful Build-A-Library community engagement initiative by donating over 1,500 books to the Philip H. Sheridan Elementary School and the Kids' World Christian Education Center. This year's total eclipsed the previous record of 1,276 which was set in 2007.

On November 18, 2008, student-athletes and athletics staff from Holy Family delivered 16 crates carrying over 1,200 books to Sheridan Elementary, an inner city public school in Philadelphia with a student population of 800, ranging from kindergarten through fourth grade. The student-athletes also spoke to a group of fourth graders variety of topics such as the importance of reading, setting goals, making good decisions, overcoming obstacles, and the importance of never giving up.

Three days later, students from Kids' World, a private school with approximately 40 students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, visited the Holy Family campus. Student-athletes read several donated books to the Kids' World students in small groups. After that, everyone participated in several gym games and activities. Kids' World left the campus with over 350 donated books.

The Build-a-Library project started in 2006. In its three years of existence, it has provided more than 3,800 books to four different schools in the Philadelphia area.