Utah businesses gather 46,516 books for kids during the holidays
Marcus Liassides of Sorenson Media reads to children at Fox Hollow Elementary in Lehi Dec. 1, 2017.
Health Catalyst delivers a car full of books to the United Way of Salt Lake as part of the 2017 Startup Santa book drive.
NetflixCS of Salt Lake City gathers books in December 2017 for Startup Santa.
Executech employees in South Jordan sort their donations for the 2017 Startup Santa book drive.
Donated books are sorted for the 2017 Startup Santa book drive.
Businesses along the Wasatch Front worked this holiday season to make sure Utah’s children have access to books.
More than 60 businesses partnered with Silicon Slopes, the United Way and the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce to participate in the third annual Startup Santa program, which supports childhood literacy programs for children living in low-income families. According to information from Chris Rawle of Silicon Slopes, two-thirds of Utah children living in low-income families and attending third grade do not read at a proficient level. Reading proficiency has been shown to indicate high school graduation levels.
“With a ratio of one book per 300 children in low income families, we wanted to help solve this problem through a book drive that put more books in the hands of Utah’s youth,” Rawle said in a post kicking off the Startup Santa book drive.
Meg Walter, director of marketing and programs with Silicon Slopes, said 67 businesses from all over Utah participated in this year’s Startup Santa, collecting 46,516 books, and raising $31,000. In an interview with the Daily Herald, Walter credited Utah United Way offices for doing “all the heavy lifting for Startup Santa.” Businesses collected books through company book drives and employee programs, and then delivered their collected books to their nearest United Way location. The various United Way chapters distributed those books to low-income schools in their area.
“A huge thanks to United Way for their hard work in coordinating the program, collecting the books, and distributing those books to kids in need,” Walter said in a post about the program.
Walter said more businesses from different regions in Utah got involved this year than in years past. In previous years, the companies that participated mainly came from the technology sector, but this year’s Startup Santa brought in companies outside of that, as well.
Silicon Slopes runs the Startup Santa book drive as a competition between companies. Domo in American Fork came in first this year, after donating more than 11,000 books. Traeger Wood Fire Grills in Salt Lake City came in second, with more than 7,000 donated books. Brainstorm, also in American Fork, came in third with more than 6,000 books donated.
Organizers at Silicon Slopes were also amazed with those smaller companies that, proportionally speaking, donated a large number for their size.
“We had some organizations with only a few employees donate hundreds of books,” Walter said.
In addition to the donations, executives from Domo, Sorenson Media, BrainStorm and JP Morgan read to children Dec. 1 at Fox Hollow Elementary School in Lehi.
“While we want Startup Santa to be competitive to get companies to donate as many books at possible, we also wanted to remind participants why we’re collecting books. Reading to and interacting with the students at Fox Hollow Elementary was an important reminder that Utah’s kids need books to thrive, and that’s why Startup Santa exists,” Walter said of the experience.
Walter said Silicon Slopes will do Startup Santa again in 2018, starting in mid-November. She is not sure if it will be a book drive again, but it will definitely be education-related.