Kate's Kart celebrates its 100,000th book at Lutheran Children's Hospital
5/10/2015
Kate's Kart, a charitable organization based in Fort Wayne, recently recognized its 100,000th free book given to a hospitalized child. The observance took place at Lutheran Children's Hospital.
Kate's Kart was founded in 2008 after the passing of Krista and Andy Layman's daughter Kate at the age of 18 months after a lifelong battle with a congenital heart defect. During her time in and out of hospitals, one of Kate's favorite things to do was to be read to and read books. Soon after she passed, Kate's family decided to honor her memory by delivering brand new books to children spending time in local hospitals. From one small rolling kart at Lutheran Children's Hospital, Kate's Kart has grown to 18 karts serving 16 hospitals throughout northeastern Indiana.
"This is such a great moment for Kate's Kart," said director, Krista Layman. "I am so appreciative of the many volunteers that continue to honor Kate's memory and the support we continue to receive from the community is just overwhelming. We just want to thank everyone for helping us grow and share Kate's love of books with so many other children."
Kate's Kart is a not-for-profit organization that supplies brand new, free books to hospitalized children to keep for their enjoyment. Through the gifting of new books, Kate's Kart strives to provide a comforting diversion to hospitalized children and their families, and to foster a love of books, and ultimately literacy, by encouraging children to read and parents to read to their children. 100 percent funded by donations and grants from the community, Kate's Kart currently has over 100 volunteers collecting, counting, sorting, labeling, stocking and distributing more than 2,000 books per month.
Thank you. For more information please contact Krista Layman, director, at krista@kateskart.org or (260) 413-5890
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