Heritage Quilters Donate Children’s Books to AKA Sorority 📚

These two organizations share a common thread: cultivating and encouraging youth literacy.

For the second year in a row and in its commitment to building literacy consciousness through book reading and storytelling, the Heritage Quilters Giving Circle, a diverse group of quilting artists from Warren and Vance counties, donated children’s books to the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.- Rho Tau Omega Chapter.

The sorority received five copies each of The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson and The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem For the Country by Amanda Gorman.

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, recommended reading of ages 7 to 10 years, tells the story of a young student‘s assignment to create a family tree and learns from her Grandmama the ancestors’ history that goes back to 1619.

Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman read The Hill We Climb at the inaugural of President Joe Biden. The poem calls for unity and justice, through both reckoning with the nation’s past and looking toward its future. It is recommended reading for all.

When asked why those specific books were chosen, Heritage Quilters Giving Circle president, Jereann King Johnson acknowledged the cultural and historic significance and relevance of each selection. She singled out Gorman’s book because it highlighted the accomplishments of a young writer and believed it would be relevant to young Warren County readers.

Organized in 2001, the Heritage Quilters and their love for the quilting arts have catapulted them to being recognized as a philanthropic organization that, with their skills and artistic vision, have allowed them to provide scholarships for area college-bound students, fund summer field trips, maintain a historic house in Warren County, North Carolina, and conduct Mathematics-based curriculum workshops for elementary-aged students.

For more informtion about the Heritage Quilters, visit the website at: www.heritagequilters.net.

(from l-r) Margaret Bullock, Jereann King Johnson, Magnolia Clanton, Belinda Mack Alston