Beaufort County students were given the gift of reading this summer, thanks to book giveaway efforts across the county.

The overall goal was to provide students at the participating schools with at least two books of their own to read over the summer, according to Sarah Hodges Stalls, public information officer at Beaufort County Schools.

According to Stalls, Eastern Elementary School purchased books with school funds, Northeast Elementary used funds from the annual book fair, and S.W. Snowden, Chocowinity Middle, Chocowinity Primary, John Small Elementary and John Cotten Tayloe collected their books. The schools that did not participate this year have plans to do so in upcoming years.

Several schools also received books donated by Bright Futures Beaufort County, which is an organization dedicated to meeting the basic needs of children.

The reasoning behind the book drives, and subsequent free book giveaways, is avoiding the “summer slide,” in which students often forget some of what they have learned during the previous school year, according to Michelle Oros, BCS director of grants and development and a Bright Futures board member.

Oros said schools across the nation are getting behind summer reading, and while many decide to hold book-swapping events, Bright Futures wanted to ensure every student received books, even if they did not have books to give.

“What we realized is that (book swapping) works fine in schools where children have books to bring in,” Oros said. “Bright Futures and others have tried to figure out a way to give books to all kids.”

Last week, John Cotten Tayloe held its book giveaway event to celebrate almost 1,200 books received as part of the book collection efforts. The school collected about 600 books, and Bright Futures donated 600 more, Stalls said.

“We gratefully thank the students, parents, staff and Bright Futures. This would not have been made a reality with out the generosity of all who donated,” John Cotten Tayloe media coordinator Jane Mizelle said.

“The research is clear that children who don’t read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress,” Mizelle said. “I encourage parents to keep their children reading and to visit their local library.”

Oros said the vision is to continue to expand the book giveaways into an annual event at all K-8 schools in the county, and by doing so, help students retain their reading knowledge.