Shea Homes recently donated more than 2,300 new and gently used books to area elementary school children as part of its second annual Read with Your Child 15 Minutes a Day campaign. This year's campaign kicked off on Oct. 11 at Shamrock Gardens Elementary School.

Miss North Carolina Jessica Jacobs, local radio personalities and area civic and community leaders joined Shea Homes to read to more than 400 Shamrock Gardens students and communicate the importance and fun of reading at all ages. From October 15th through 29th, Shea Homes collaborated with community partners including the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, the Ballantyne EarthFare, YWCA Central Carolinas and the Harris and Lake Norman YMCAs to collect books to be donated to children in the communities Shea Homes serves. On November 16th, Shea Homes volunteers returned to Shamrock Gardens Elementary School to personally deliver approximately 500 books collected during the campaign and to share some reading time with individual classes.

In addition, Shea Homes donated books from the campaign to Lancaster County's Clinton Elementary School, Cabarrus County's Royal Oaks Elementary School and Union County's Waxhaw Elementary School. More than 10 million American children have difficulty reading, and up to 15 percent of them will eventually drop out of school. Studies show the single most important intervention tool for developing children's literacy skills is reading to them regularly from a young age. Read with Your Child is a national awareness campaign dedicated to educating parents about the importance of reading to their children from the time they're as young as 6 months old.