By JENNIFER IYER | Redlands Daily Facts
More than 100 students at Crafton Elementary School in Redlands will receive a free hardcover book to call their own, and with it, perhaps, a love of reading for their whole family.
University of Redlands graduate Jordan Buttner organized the Redlands Reads campaign to garner the books this spring, to “leave a lasting mark on the community which has given me so much over the last four years.”
The idea came as the coronavirus pandemic started closing down everything in spring 2020. At that point Buttner was volunteering at Totally Kids, a rehabilitation hospital in Loma Linda.
“When COVID hit I was no longer able to do that work, and it was something that was very important to me, interacting with those kids and their families, just brightening their days,” he said.