Success! The GroundSwell & Penn Museum Book Drive for Philadelphia READS Has Come to a Close

The numbers are in, and we collected 752 books at our Center City drop-off point alone! Our partners at the Penn Museum, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Arthur Ross Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Art and the Office of Community and Public Affairs at Penn are still counting their books, but the numbers are looking good so far—we're ready to call this campaign a success!

We'll sort and label the books, then take them to the book bank at Philadelphia READS. Since 2006, Philadelphia READS has donated over a quarter of a million books to Philadelphia's classroom teachers. Studies have shown that children who are not independent readers by the third grade are rarely able to catch up later on, so it's their mission to make sure Philadelphia's youngest and neediest children have the resources they need to become strong readers as early as possible.  With all the generous donations to the GroundSwell & Penn Museum Book Drive, we'll be able to help them reach even more students, and "do something good for a change" in our region!

The work of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is made possible through the generous support of committed individuals and institutions.