15 Years of Inspiring Readers: Book Harvest’s 2026 Dream Big Celebration

The Mebane Foundation is proud to share exciting news from Book Harvest, one of our most valued partners. For 15 years, Book Harvest has been building a culture of reading for children and families by ensuring access to high-quality, age-appropriate books in the home—where a lifelong love of learning begins.

At the heart of this mission is Dream Big, Book Harvest’s signature community book drive and family celebration. Designed to bring families and volunteers together, Dream Big centers on stories, choice, and the simple magic of growing up surrounded by books. The event is fueled by generosity and guided by the belief that every child deserves an abundant home library.

I met Founder Ginger Young in 2017 and was immediately impressed by her vision for early childhood literacy and her commitment to making sure all children have access to engaging books in their own homes. Supporting her mission was an easy decision. Since its founding in 2011, Book Harvest has distributed more than 3 million books to children and families in Durham and the surrounding areas. Over the years, we have been proud to sponsor Book Babies, the Big Dream Book Drive, and the Summer Block Party.

This partnership reflects our shared commitment to literacy, opportunity, and the power of books to shape brighter futures for children across our region. – Larry Colbourne, president of the Mebane Foundation.

Republished with permission from Book Harvest and author Gabby Bunnell.

15 Years of Dreaming Big: Book Harvest’s 2026 Dream Big Book Drive & Community Celebration

Monday was a day to remember! At Book Harvest’s 15th Annual Dream Big Book Drive & Community Celebration, our incredible community brought in 22,861 books in just 3 hours!

22,861!

That’s 22,861 books carried from home to a book drive, book drive to car, car to Boxyard…all to be individually counted, balanced, sorted, stacked, re-boxed, and loaded onto a truck bound for Book Harvest. Dream Big has always been about aiming for these ambitious numbers that are, quite frankly, hard to fathom: we hope these photos and recap can give you just a peek into the process.

More than 200 volunteers filled Boxyard RTP on Monday in varying shifts, partaking in jobs such as collecting data on book drives, boxing and labeling sorted books, running our Family Volunteer Area, and (critically) handing out hot chocolate tokens.

Throughout the constant shuffle of precarious book stacks and carts, family fun was abundant through bookmark making, Polaroid taking, face painting, and more. The famous Poetry Fox even made an appearance, typing away on the 2nd floor with a picturesque backdrop of flurrying books below. In the parking lot, children and families were able to explore a GoDurhamNC bus, a City of Durham dump truck, a Gateway Building contruction truck, a Two Men and a Truck moving truck, and of course, the ever-looming characters of the Paperhand Puppet Project!

In the middle of the event’s hard work and celebration, our CEO and Founder, Ginger Young, alongside Book Harvest Durham’s Executive Director, Tabitha Blackwell, announced a Book Harvest milestone years in the making: over 3,000,000 Book Harvest books have been harvested by children since our founding in 2011! Over 582,000 of those books have been sourced from Book Harvest’s 15 Dream Big Book Drives alone, and as Ginger remarked at the event: “That’s a lot of home libraries.”

Tabitha and Ginger announce the 3 millionth book harvested by children since Book Harvest was founded in 2011.

The day’s joy culminated in the Paperhand Puppet Project’s parade around the parking lot, where children transformed into cats, birds, fish, and monarch butterflies held up to the sky. The community’s mutual love and investment was palpable, bringing a sense of needed togetherness and hope as we honor Dr. King’s legacy and set out into this new year.

We extend warm and resounding gratitude to all of our community members who ran a book drive, showed up to volunteer, and celebrated with us on Monday. And of course, thank you to our Book Harvest Durham Sponsors–including PNC, Subaru Southpoint, and Scholastic–for supporting Dream Big and our work in Durham all year long!

And remember, the big dreams don’t stop here! The Dream Big Book Drive continues through January 31. Every book donated between December 1 and January 31 counts toward our final total, so there’s still plenty of time to host a book drive or clean off your own shelves to contribute to this year’s tally. Learn more here and stay tuned for our final number at the end of the month.