Read Aloud West Virginia and Berkeley County board member Casey Willson, left, recommends a book to “A Ticket to Anywhere: Read-a-palooza 2025” attendees in Four Seasons Books on April 3. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — A tall stack of children’s books could be found on the counter of Four Seasons Books on the evening of April 3, waiting to be packed up and handed out to local elementary and middle school teachers.

The books were purchased from a wish list given to Four Seasons Books by teachers in the area, according to Read Aloud West Virginia state and Berkeley County board member Casey Willson.

“We started at 5:30 this evening and just got a rush of folks,” Willson said. “It’s been great!”

According to Julia Young, events manager at Four Seasons Books, over $500 in books, sales and donations was raised for the nonprofit organization at the event.

“This is a kickoff to an ongoing partnership between our store and Read Aloud West Virginia,” Young said.

That partnership will likely include this open house at Four Seasons Books every year, held in conjunction with Read Aloud West Virginia’s annual Read-a-palooza fundraiser in Charleston. It will also feature an ongoing wish list from local teachers on the store’s website, enabling the public to purchase books from Four Seasons Books and donate them to local schools.

According to Willson, this partnership will be an opportunity for Read Aloud West Virginia to draw attention to the importance of local bookstores to their communities, while also encouraging bookstore customers to become more involved in improving literacy in local students.

“Bookstores are important to the whole function of literacy,” Willson said. “This is a win-win situation.”

Another big win of the evening, was that two of Four Seasons Books’ regular customers signed up to volunteer with Read Aloud West Virginia, after they learned more about the organization.

“Many organizations do literacy-based events, but Read Aloud West Virginia is in the schools week in and week out, involving kids in the joy and fun of reading,” Willson said, mentioning volunteers demonstrate to children how to enjoy reading, by reading books aloud to elementary and middle school classes in the area. “We also distribute books and do events and community outreach year round, keeping books on the minds and in the hands of the kids. Read Aloud West Virginia is the constant drumbeat of literacy.”

The organization has chapters in 30 of the state’s 55 counties. Based on the improvement in test scores that has been documented in students who have been influenced by the organization, it is unquestionable that Read Aloud West Virginia is playing an essential role in the education of West Virginia’s children.

“A child only needs to read a few minutes a day, to see an improvement in their test scores,” Willson said. “Picking up a book alone or with the family is crucial to enhancing reading skills and literacy. West Virginia is now ranked number 49 in reading scores, in the United States. We had gotten to number 37, before the pandemic.”

Read Aloud Berkeley County president Bob Fleenor said that learning good reading habits from the adults in his life, as a child, was what enabled him to complete an impressive feat — winning five consecutive games of Jeopardy.

“Reading absolutely had to do with it!” Fleenor said of the game show, which he was featured on in 2001. “My dad got us a set of encylopedias when I was eight years old. I would leaf my way through them, looking for various entries, and stuff would pop up from the other pages that I would want to read. That information stayed with me so that, many years later, I was able to recall it on a sound stage.”