Santa Claus, firefighters and books bring excitement for Cressey Elementary students

Children in a second-grade classroom at Cressey Elementary School jumped and cheered as Santa Claus entered their classroom Thursday morning with boxes of books.

Almost 300 students received two books to take home, said Leslie Brewer, the founder of the project she started 20 years ago, “Putting a Book in the Hand of Every Child.”

“It’s all about putting books at the home so children have a book to read,” Brewer said.

When Brewer had children at Cressey Elementary, she said, there was no library at the school and she noticed a lot of the children didn’t have access to one. In an effort to keep kids reading, she decided to start the project.

“It gives them that opportunity to read, and we all know knowledge is power,” she said.

Brewer works with on-call paid firefighters, or CPFs, at Cressey Fire Department to make sure every year children have at least one book to take home, she said. Chief CPF Josh Brewer and CPF Matt Wooding buy the books they hand out to the kids.

“It’s nice to see the smile on the kids’ faces,” Brewer said. “That’s what we do it for.”

Brewer said when he was attending Cressey Elementary he remembers receiving the books and that’s why he’s been keeping the tradition alive, like his father and grandfather also did.

“Reading is the base like for everything,” Brewer said. “Kids always need books.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2016 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Santa Claus, firefighters and books bring excitement for Cressey Elementary students."