My daughter, Haelee and I had the distinct privilege of attending an event organized by the Burlington Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (BAC DST) on March 2, 2024, BAC DST is a service organization that strives to create opportunities for higher quality education in the community. The event was a book fair celebrating National Read Across America Day and the start of Women’s History Month.
Held at Mayco Bigelow Community Center, the book fair showcased a variety of talented authors, poets, illustrators, musicians, and more from across the state of North Carolina. The theme of the book fair was #TheyLookLikeMe. It aimed to promote diversity and representation in children’s literature, as well as to improve the literacy rate in the community. The book fair was the brainchild of Sherea Burnett and Veronica Bellamy, the co-chairs of the National Library Project Committee of BAC DST. They were inspired by the legacy of the National Library Project, which was founded by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1937 to provide books and library services to African American communities.
The book fair was a huge success, with over 250 people attending and shopping from 19 authors who offered a wide range of genres, topics, and perspectives. BAC DST also collected well over 200 books that will be donated to two selected schools in Caswell and Alamance Counties, where BAC DST has been providing mentoring and tutoring programs for the students. The book fair was also featured on WXII News, which gave a positive coverage of the event and its impact. You can watch a replay of WXII’s coverage by going here.
Haelee and I were honored to have been a part of this event as vendors, sponsors, spectators, and customers. As for being customers, we were thrilled to converse with some of our favorite authors besides ourselves as well as to discover new ones. We left the event feeling full in Spirit.
We’d like to like to congratulate Sherea, Veronica, and BAC DST as a whole for organizing such a wonderful and meaningful event. They not only honored the history and the mission of their sorority, but also created history and a lasting legacy for the community.
If you missed the book fair, you can still support the authors and the cause by visiting Next Chapter Bookstore, where you can find some of the books that were featured at the event. You can also contact me if you’d like to donate books to the targeted schools by way of BAC DST. Let’s keep the spirit of diversity and literacy alive! Oh yeah and Happy Women’s History Month.
