Only 36% of children are ready to enter kindergarten (KY Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Profile, 2020). To address early literacy and kindergarten readiness, 12 Nights of Virtual Bedtime Stories offered nightly bedtime stories read by community readers. Community readers ranged from police officers, nurse practitioners, State Senator, librarians, and Mrs. Claus. The stories were recorded and appeared on the Anchors & Paws Community Early Childhood Council Facebook page. Books focused on the holidays, self-care, physical activity, and more. Community readers demonstrated a variety of reading techniques including talking about pictures, showing children words, reading with fun in your voice, asking children questions, and more. Code words, which created a special holiday phrase, were provided nightly. Families logged the code word each night and at the conclusion of the program they received a copy of the book (shared by the community reader) to add to their home library. Almost all program aspects for participants (registration, viewing, evaluation, etc.) were done online via Qualtrics and Facebook. 

37 families with young children, at least one child being under the age of 5, participated in the 12 Nights of Virtual Bedtime Stories. Evaluation measures indicated strong impact. 100% of parents indicated their children enjoyed listening to the stories; 89% indicated that their child/children know how to find the first page of a book and which way to flip the pages; and 89% also indicated that their child/children pay attention for at least three minutes to a task an adult is leading. An area which needs to be addressed in future programs is rhyming as only 39% indicated that their child/children recognize when two words rhyme. The narrative data had even more impact in encouraging future efforts. Parents commented that “He was really impacted by those that were in their place of business or work or dressed in their “work” attire”; “She enjoyed listening to the different ways that each person read each book”; “They loved hearing from different people they had seen around the community”; “They wanted to continue reading more stories after the one we listened to. It has increased their interest in story time and reading”; “My 4-year-old seems more interested since it became a habit to listen to a story each night”; and “She has been asking us to read to her more and has been more interested in actually listening to the story”. In addition to the participating families, 492 additional contacts viewed the recordings (Facebook Insights). A three month follow up survey is planned along with designing another virtual series in the summer focused on getting ready for school.