Brothers share their love of reading with under-served students
TAMPA, Fla. - Two brothers have turned their love of reading into a mission to get under-served students books.
Chase Hartman said he and his brother Zach Hartman have worked really hard to bring the community together to make small acts of kindness by handing out these books.
Chase started in 2015 with a friend collecting gently used books. He eventually recruited his younger brother Zach to help.
"I really do like coming in here. I'm skipping school right now, but this is what I like to do," said Chase. "I like to meet the kids, distribute the books. I mean, share my love of reading."
The brother call their effort Eco Brothers. Zach said they both love to volunteer, because they get a lot out of it.
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"We get happiness. It's fun to volunteer because, you know, you get to see smiles on people's faces, and you go home knowing that you did something good for your community," Zach said.
Chase and Zach have handed out free books to students at Graham Elementary School. Latanya Christopher, a fourth grade teacher at the elementary school in Tampa, said the book give students a chance to bond.
"Some of them have the same books. So that they can read together with their classmates and so it is awesome," Christopher said.
The school's media specialist John Perry said it's a great way to help out students who have a hard time getting books.
"They have access to books here in the library, but don't necessarily have a lot of books at home. So this is a great opportunity for them to build their home library," Perry said.
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Chase and Zach's mom believes her boys are teaching an important lesson for their peers.
"I think a lot of times kids don't think they can make a difference in the world. And then they realize that if they just do one small good deed for the day, that's making a difference," said Kim Parrish the Hartman brothers mom. "And every single time they do something good, it just mounts up to making this world a better place."
Chase and Zach started with just a few hundred books, but now, they have donated hundreds of thousands of books, making a huge impact in helping children learn to read.
The duo has reach their goal of giving away more than 200,000 books at the giveaway at Graham Elementary. They collect books from the community, and buys books from money that they raise off social media.
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