MELROSE — The Melrose Community Book Project (MCBP) is celebrating five years of free virtual and in-person reading and writing enrichment programming for Melrose community youths. In the wake of school and library closings, social distancing and many canceled summer plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, former MHS student now graduate Mercera Finger created and developed the MCBP in the summer of 2020 to fill a need she saw in her community. The MCBP tradition continues under the leadership of her brother Drew Finger, 11th grader at MHS and one of the program’s inaugural Once Upon a Book Club participants along with a dedicated group of MHS volunteers.
The MCBP’s Sunshine Storytime is a virtual storytime with fun interactive games and activities for kids in grades K-2. Once Upon a Book Club is a book club for students in grades three to five which includes book discussions, vocabulary games and team-building challenges. This exciting book club culminates with a creative book-themed final project, giving participants the opportunity to make their own book trailer, reimagined book cover, themed video game or alternate ending to the book. The MCBP also offers a Writing Workshop which incorporates a variety of creative activities for participants, ranging from writing and performing their own plays to creating a life-size “Poe-Tree” made up of participants’ original poems. Summer Homework Study Group is another in-person program offered by the MCBP in which MHS students have tutored and supported elementary students with their summer assignments.
Additional programming over the past five years has included a conservation-themed book club for a group of environmentally-conscious sixth through eighth graders and two Girls in STEM panels that included speakers from across the country including a biologist, software engineer and cloud scientist who inspired local elementary students by sharing their experiences in STEM. The MCBP has also offered a virtual book club for public elementary students in Lowell and most recently a Sunshine Storytime ‘Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover’ Special Event exploring look-based discrimination by reading and discussing the book Big by Vashti Harrison.
Since its inception, the MCBP’s programming has been enjoyed by more than 145 local students with the help of 40+ MHS volunteers and has been responsible for more than 375 hours of free reading and writing programs for elementary and middle school students. Drew is so excited to be a part of the MCBP’s five years of outstanding programming. “I fondly remember my days as a fifth grader in the MCBP’s Once Upon a Book Club and am delighted that I get to share my love of reading and writing with the next generation of students.”
This summer, the MCBP was grateful to partner with Molly’s Bookstore as the location for its in-person sessions of Once Upon a Book Club and Writing Workshop. The MCBP is thankful for the support of MHS Principal Jason Merrill, Vice Principal Bryan Corrigan, Club Advisor Ms. Robin Loewald, Molly’s Bookstore, the energetic MHS volunteers and the outstanding group of kids and their parents that have made the MCBP a success for these past five years.
The MCBP fall session will begin in October. Parents interested in signing up their children for these free programs can contact Drew Finger at melrosecommunitybookproject1@gmail.com.