Joining with the Rhode Island Summer Food Service Program located in Jenks Park at 580 Broad Street in Central Falls, Books Are Wings is offering free books, crafts and story time on Wednesdays from 11-1 through the end of August.
The SFSP includes a FREE summer camp for youth 18 and younger in Jenks Park. The program runs from 9:30-2:30 Monday-Friday and breakfasts and lunches are served at 10am and 12pm, respectively. Central Falls offers a wide range of enrichment programming within the SFSP program, from education to physical activity, to arts and crafts and drama.
Families can register below:
Marti, who staffs the BAW program in Jenks Park on Wednesdays, looks forwards to sharing her love of reading with visitors and participants every week: “I work as the BAW representative at Jenks Park for the Central Falls Parks and Recreation Department, which means that once a week I arrive at the park, read stories, give away books, and engage kids in games and literacy events. This is both fun and satisfying – often I am working one-on-one or in a small group with kids, developing and strengthening their literacy skills.” 
A retired teacher of 41 years, Marti is uniquely suited to this work and is passionate about Jenks Park events and Book are Wings to “share and foster a love of reading.” She shares that her own passion for reading inspired her to do this work: “I am a lifelong reader – libraries are one of my favorite places, wherever I’ve lived. I read to learn, to explore, to imagine, to dream about places and people and relationships as well as ideas.”
Marti says the most important reason she reads is “…because it’s fun! I enjoy it! I cannot imagine life without reading.” It is on this foundation that Books Are Wings engages with the community: sharing books that children choose themselves and modeling that reading is a joy that transports us to other worlds.
Our literacy programming in conjunction with the Summer Food Service Program is generously supported by the Amica Companies Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Amica insurance. Programs like these are integral to supporting families during the summer months by providing high quality, educational and fun programming that helps prevent summer learning loss and empowers Central Falls residents to read as a family at a home.
