The pandemic’s effect on education includes reading skills. Area children, homebound without Wi-Fi access to online literature and without books of their own, were absent reading material. That setback put some gas in the tank of local educators to do something about it. Jen Samuel cracked the pages of this story for the Daily Local News.

Realizing those children would be falling behind, Chrissy Casey of Chester Springs took action. Her experience as a first-grade teacher at Sugartown Elementary School in the Great Valley School District armed her for the task.

She started a campaign using the Scholastic fundraising platform ClassroomsCount. Through it, she raised more than $1,000 to launch the “Book-Mobile.”

In July 2020, she began driving around neighborhoods in the GVSD every Wednesday. She offered children the opportunity to board the Book-Mobile and browse.

Fellow educators Kim Colvin of Malvern, Christina Ensling of West Chester, and Sally Bovell of Thorndale have since jumped aboard. They help Casey run the program.

The success of the independent program is evident. Between 75 and 100 children take out books from the Book-Mobile each month.

“I just know if it wasn’t for us, a couple of communities wouldn’t have gotten books,” said Casey.

Read more about the Book-Mobile in the Daily Local News.