CAZENOVIA — On March 1, the Cazenovia Public Library (CPL) and CazCares launched the “Snuggle Up and Read” initiative, the organizations’ first collaborative early literacy program since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From March through October 2022, the program will offer a set of ten new and mostly classic children’s books to area families who are part of the CazCares community and are not necessarily library users.

The initiative, which is targeted towards families with children under five years old, aims to lay the groundwork for success in school, help families create memories of reading and spending time together, and ensure that all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, have meaningful interactions with books.

“CazCares is thrilled to partner with the [library] on this project,” said CazCares Client Services Director Gigi Redmond. “Our children’s first teachers are their parents, and this project gives parents a set of books to enjoy again and again with their children. There is no better way to start school than with a love of reading and books.”

Funded in part by a grant from the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation, Snuggle Up and Read was organized by the CPL Literacy Outreach Committee, which includes Redmond, CazCares Assistant Director Casey Frazee, literacy consultant Kate Franz, Burton Street Elementary School second grade teacher Julie Kielbasinski, CPL Education Coordinator Jenna Wright-Martin, CPL Youth Services Assistant Brynn Semeraro, CPL Literacy Coordinator Carla Zimmerman, and CPL Director Betsy Kennedy.

More than 15 years ago, CPL and CazCares created a unique partnership through their multifaceted Story Room Family Literacy Program. The program operates a collaborative learning-focused family center at CazCares that provides early literacy, adult literacy, and parenting programs. In the “Story Room,” children can develop pre-literacy skills through language-rich guided play and read-alouds while their parents access other on-site services.

In March 2020, the Story Room was forced to close its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Zimmerman, the idea for Snuggle Up and Read arose during a meeting of the literacy outreach committee last year.

“It was one of our first meetings after the [COVID shutdown], and we were thinking, ‘How can we start working together again?’” Zimmerman recalled. “I think it was Gigi who said, ‘What if we can do something that we have sort of done already, but we do it even better?’ We came up with the idea of making mostly classic children’s books available for free to the families of CazCares. . . We could do that no matter if people were able to come inside the building or not.”

The committee secured the grant money to support the program in December 2021 and began planning the rollout soon after.

Local graphic designer and illustrator Hannah Barley was brought on board to create the program logo and other artwork, which are inspired by the characters of children’s book author Richard Scarry.

Barley graduated from the Pratt Institute with a degree in communications design. She has been a graphic designer in the Central New York area for nearly a decade, working with a variety of small start-ups and nonprofits, including Literacy Outreach for Madison County and Tenderfoot Fair Trade Learning Lab.

When creating Snuggle Up and Read, the committee selected books that are beloved by the under-five age group and stories that highlight diversity.

The organizers also worked to choose titles that were not already included in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) of Madison County. The DPIL is a book-gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children up to five years old, regardless of their family’s income. According to Wright-Martin, both programs will run in tandem to allow for even more books to get into children’s homes.

“If you’re reading books over and over and over — just [learning] the rhythm of the language — you are so much further ahead,” said Redmond. “If kids don’t have books in the house, they are not as apt to be ready for kindergarten when they get there, or pre-K. We want to set them up for reading in the future.”

During the first phase of the program, which begins this month, the committee members will distribute the following books: “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin Jr, and John Archambault, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr, “Corduroy” by Don Freeman, and “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown.

“I know a lot of kindergarten teachers thematically make their rooms about some of these books in the beginning of the year, so just having the knowledge of some of these specific characters really makes a difference,” said Semeraro.

In addition to the first four books, each family will also receive a bag of kids’ snacks and fresh foods from the CazCares food pantry.

The second and third phases are expected to begin just before summer and the start of the school year, respectively.

Over the course of the entire program, the organizers will guide the CazCares families by offering read-aloud tips and encouraging reading together on a regular basis.

At the beginning of each phase, families can pick up their new sets of books and sit down with a committee member to build community connections and casually discuss a specific book or character, their experience reading aloud, or the program’s impact on their children.

In the coming months, the committee hopes to increase awareness of the initiative throughout the Cazenovia community and coordinate with CPL and the Burton Street Elementary School librarian to offer concurrent programming focused on the same children’s books.

According to Zimmerman, the long-term goal is to offer Snuggle Up and Read every year.

“Why do it just once?’” Zimmerman said. “We are going to have another group of children that are under five next year, and we will reach out to their families and make the program available to them again. We want to make sure that all children have access to these books at all times, not just the people who might go down to the library.”

Currently, the committee is reaching out to potential Phase 1 participants within the CazCares community via multiple avenues such as postcard, social media and text blast.

“This project highlights the value in the library collaborating with other community organizations,” said Kennedy. “CazCares has been an invaluable partner to make sure the families that would benefit the most from these classic books receive them. Snuggle up and Read fits perfectly with the library's mission to connect people and to promote lifelong learning. These wonderful books will enrich the lives of the children and caregivers and hopefully start a reading habit.”

To learn more about the program and signing up, contact CazCares at 315-655-3174 or [email protected].