In the summer of 2024, Madison County FCS Extension was presented with an opportunity to attain free children's books for programming from Rand McNally Publishers. The FCS Agent confirmed a shipment and delivery for the books requested, but soon realized a typo error just created a new challenge and opportunity outside of the plan. The intended delivery was about 10 times bigger than the original plan, and so with the help of county extension teammates, several more pallets made their way home to Madison County.  The original plan quickly evolved into the Free Book Project, where the goal quickly became a challenge to share free books with as many children and families as possible throughout Madison County and even the surround areas. The nature of the books made them suitable for not only children, but marketable for various other populations such as Alzheimer's patients, therapeutic programming, and nursing homes.  The books contained not just literary pieces, but also brain teasers, puzzles, and intricate coloring pages. 

The books were featured first at the Madison County Home, Farm, and Garden Expo in September 2024, where many community members and families had the opportunity to take home as many as they wanted. The County Extension Staff took 20 boxes of books to the Expo event and returned to the office with none of them.  There were 240 books in a box, so approximately 4800 books were delivered to families or for dissemination over the course of this event.   

After the Expo, the books were shared far and wide with local programming efforts including various 4-H clubs, Laugh and Learn, and other children's programming.

The Madison County FCS Agent reached out and contacted all of the local elementary and several middle school Family Resource Center Directors, other neighboring county agents, the Madison County Public Library, Extension Homemakers Groups, local faith based groups, and community enrichment groups such as Hope's Wings to gauge the need and interest in the children's books.  A total of 25 local partners chose to get involved and extend the outreach efforts for the Free Book Project.  These partners included:

• 11 County Extension Agents which included Powell, Estill, Nicholas, Clark 4-H, Bourbon, Harrison, Fayette, Boyle, Garrard, Lincoln, and Jessamine Counties.
• 9 FRC's including Kirksville, Shannon Johnson, Farristown, Foley, Silver Creek, Kingston, Kit Carson, Glen Marshall, and Berea Community.
• 5 other faith based or community groups, including a Grandparents as Parents group in Waco, Hazel Green Elementary students, Hope's Wings (women's domestic violence organization), and a couple of church groups.

Together, the Extension and community partners helped distribute 50,065 books to children and families around the central Kentucky area, with about half of those numbers being within Madison County.  The children that received the books ranged in ages from Kindergarten to 5th grade and also included a couple of groups of middle schoolers ages 6-8th grades.  

The books' online values range from $1.00 to $6.00 each.  The value of the books, had they been purchased would have then ranged from $50,865 to $305,190. 

As a result of the Free Book Project, children had the opportunity to expand their reading and vocabulary skills, sharpen their brains with puzzles, and enhance literacy awareness.  The books were shared during windows of opportunity for increased free time for the students, such as over fall break and the Christmas Holiday break. The participants could embrace self- care skills for those that took advantage of the intricate coloring exercises, as it could have offered an opportunity for stress relief and a change of focus.