Published on April 13, 2026
Community Centers across the City recently restocked their bookshelves thanks to a partnership between Park and Recreation and the Fort Worth Public Library.
Ccommunity center staff were invited to stop by the Library Operations Center to choose books to share with youth who attend their programs. Representatives from all 22 centers selected a total of 2,000 books to support their literacy initiatives.
Members of Fort Worth Park and Recreation’s literacy committee helped coordinate the book pickups.
Recreation Programmer Kaylee Velasquez said the community centers will use the books in its youth programs, including after-school and summer day camps, which include a focus on reading.
“We hire literacy support specialists every year,” Velasquez said. “We do what we can to support what the mayor and Fort Worth ISD are doing with literacy, and we also incorporate recreation.”
Beth Walters from the Library’s Collection Management unit said the idea for the book giveaway came out of a meeting with Park and Recreation about its summer camps. She said the available books came from a combination of new book donations from Barnes & Noble and Autobahn Land Rover, as well as gently used donations from customers and books removed from the Library’s collection.
District Superintendent Nick Deitering said the books will be a major part of his department’s literacy initiative.
“It’s a great partnership for the community centers to get books, to replenish their libraries so kids can take books home, read them and bring them back,” Deitering said. “We are having representatives from each community center come to pick books that best fit their programs.”
Assistant Library Director Michele Gorman said the partnership works well because community centers and libraries serve the same populations. Both also encourage and support childhood literacy through a variety of programs and activities.
“We are all in this together,” Gorman said. “We are excited to put these books in the hands of youth enrolled in community center programs, where we know they will be put to good use. Providing access to reading materials really moves the needle when it comes to children becoming stronger readers.”
Why books?
There are many positive reasons for making books easily available to children. Here are just a few reasons, according to the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance:
Books help children develop basic language skills and profoundly expand their vocabularies more than any other media.
Books develop critical thinking skills; children navigate a book alone and decide what the contents means.
Books develop and nourish children’s imaginations. Picture books introduce young children to art and literature. Novels and nonfiction books stimulate sensory awareness. Books inform our imaginations and inspire creativity.