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Each year on the third Monday in January, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy by serving our neighbors and giving back to the community. United Way of Greater Houston is partnering with local districts for a community book drive for elementary students in classrooms across the city. Our focus is to collect books featuring diverse characters, and written and illustrated by people of color.

The books will be given to students on March 5, 2024, as part of our annual Read Across America celebration.  Students will be able to take the books home and build their home libraries.

For more information about the MLK Day of Service, please visit: https://www.nationalservice.gov/serve-your-community/mlk-day-service

Get Involved!

  • Donate Books!

    Donate new children’s books through our online wishlist!  Be sure to include your name and email address on a gift note so we can thank you for your donations.

  • Host a Drive!

    A great way to engage with United Way of Greater Houston is to host a book drive with your company or community group!

    • All books for the drive must be new and unused.
    • We encourage you to share our online gift list so individuals can purchase books online and ship directly to United Way of Greater Houston, however you can also encourage participants to select their own books as long as they meet the general criteria of being written by a person of color, illustrated by a person of color, and/or featuring characters or color.
    • Use the fliers (general and personalizable) to promote the drive! You can set your collection dates to be a shorter timeframe than our total drive. We recommend focusing on 2-3 weeks. You can personalize one of the fliers to include your company’s dates, goals, and drop off locations (if any).

    Contact Emily Faron (efaron@unitedwayhouston.org) or your primary United Way contact to arrange for pick-up of any onsite book collections.

Follow @UnitedWayHouston on social media to follow the results of the drive!

If you have questions, please contact Emily Faron, efaron@unitedwayhouston.org.