Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Location: Piru Community, Ventura County, CA

What do an ice cream shop, a pre-school and local sheriff’s deputies have in common? Answer: Pride in their community and zeal to help young children with reading skills that will carry them to great heights.
The Police Community Literacy Project aims to reach people of all ages within the community of Piru. Our project is simple and grass roots. Increase literacy, promote reading and build police & community friendships by delivering quality books to children of all ages.

On May 12th, 2008, Sheriff’s Department personnel contacted Westlake Village based Support for the Kids Foundation and solicited assistance for this project. The foundation mobilized their volunteers who bought up nearly every book in Thousand Oaks thrift shops. Within 48 hours the organization delivered five hundred books to our Piru Community Police Station.

Within a day, Sheriff’s police cars were stocked with books and sent to the U-Scream Ice Cream Shop at 3940 Center Street, Piru. This ice cream shop is a local meeting place for residents young and old. Shop owner Stephanie Acosta loved the idea and joined forces. Since that very first day in the spring of 2008, Stephanie has passed out nearly six hundred books free of charge.

The stockpile of books we thought would last a year were quickly distributed. Lynda Miller from Support for the Kids Foundation put us in contact with the Book Ends Organization. Since 1993, Book Ends has passed out more than 1.5 million free books. The organization is dedicated to putting books directly in the hands of our youth. Fortunately, Book Ends came to our rescue, and provided us with eight hundred brand-new incredible books for the Piru community.

Our feeling is that ownership is a tool of pride and the Piru children are encouraged to take the books, read them and pass them throughout the community. We also believe strong literacy skills will help great children grow up to be successful and confident adults. This simple program works because it is kept basic and receives its energy from so many community volunteers, organizations and businesses.

We are in need of preschool books, from infant to kindergarten age. Picture, story, ABC and number learning books are the hardest to locate. Anyone interesting in donating to our literacy program can drop off appropriate books at the Fillmore Police and Sheriff’s Station, 524 Sespe Ave., Fillmore Monday through Friday during normal business hours (please no magazines, DVDs or CDs).