PoWeR! Book Bags

Mission: To increase children’s experiences with language and literacy to better understand themselves, communicate with others, and interact with the world.

PoWeR! Book Bags is a volunteer-based nonprofit 501c-3 organization dedicated to advancing early relational health with child literacy. PoWeR! stands for Play, Write, and Read! We find it is also a great way to demonstrate the role that language and literacy play in the lives of children. ​We are a Volunteer Organization in Lower Northern Michigan. We began in March of 2016 and are currently operating at twenty sites with our Original Book Bag Project. We have expanded to include four additional literacy give-away programs. We want to positively impact as many children and families as we are able! Since 2016, we have distributed over 600,000 books to children along with over 100,000 bags filled with supplies.

Through our programs, we provide under-resourced children and their families with research-proven tools to support playing, writing, and reading. PoWeR! Book Bags distributes free new books and handmade bags with literacy materials and toys designed for sensory development to children across Northwestern Michigan at participating schools, food and baby pantries, and northwest lower Michigan Health Departments. Children choose a bag and a free new book to keep and read over and over again!