CAMcare Participates in National Read Aloud Day

Last Edited: Feb 01, 2019 5:14 PM EST 

By Melanie Zayas, SNJ Today Reporter

CAMDEN COUNTY, N.J. – It was an action-filled day for kids from local daycare centers visiting CAMcare on Friday, February 1st.

From hands-on activities to picking up books, each child participated in National Read Aloud Day.

With the partnership between Nemours Alfred I. Dupont Hospital for Children and Amerigroup New Jersey, children will now have more opportunities to read with the new free Little Library at CAMcare.

President of Amerigroup New Jersey, John Koehn, says he is happy to see literacy spread through the program.  

“The library is always here and it’ll be at the other locations as well. It turns out there are some kids coming special today but the library remains so for children who are coming here they will have access to that,” said Koehn.

Melissa Kary Allen, of Nemours, says launching the free Little Libraries throughout Camden County is a step in the right direction toward achieving literacy.

“We share the importance of literacy for children how important it is to read to them to get them reading at a very young age,” said Allen. “It’s all about the connection between children’s health and literacy. It’s been researched and proven that there is a connection and it’s really important which is why we are so happy to be here.”

Caress Green, program supervisor of Care For Me Children’s Center in Pennsauken, says she is excited to have the free books available to the kids she works with.

“What we scheduled to do with the books that we’re gonna receive is that we’re gonna select a day for each kid so they’ll take the book home they’ll read it with mom and dad and then they’ll come and read it to their friends,” said Green.

To top off the event, a favorite Philly mascot also joined in for a read-aloud session — the Phillie Phanatic.

Children came to the new Free Little Library at CAMcare on Federal Street.

Pat Gillespie from Amerigroup read “Make Way for Ducklings”.

Each child went home with a book too.

Amerigroup and Dupont Hospital sponsored the library.