What is Landon’s Library?

Landon’s Library provides books each month to every child born in Garrett County from date of birth until their first day of kindergarten – the first county-wide effort of its kind in the State of MD. To date over 500,000 books have been distributed to enrich the lives of children and their families along with Kindermusik and monthly play-dates.

In Garrett County, “Learning Beyond the Classroom” mobile classroom is being developed and implemented that will allow the school system to reach out to children and their families in a way like never before.  Through collaboration and cooperation, a retired school bus has been purchased that has been turned into a classroom.  The bus is being hollowed out and fitted with everything necessary to function as a classroom, lending library, and a food bank.

The goals for this Learning Beyond the Classroom are driven by the needs of the population in Garrett County, and include increasing school readiness for children ages 0-5, providing fine arts programs, and providing feeding programs for families in need.  The mobile classroom will visit ten sites throughout Garrett County during the third week of every month.  These sites have been determined to have a high percentage of children ages 0-5 that are not currently enrolled in an early child care program.  The project has partnered with local facilities (fire departments, apartment complexes, churches) in each community to provide restroom facilities, as well an area for program expansion.  At each site, there will be school readiness lessons, nutrition and cooking activities, literature and art experiences, as well as valuable play experiences for children.  The activities are based on thematic concepts which are tied to increasing the level of school readiness of children who are participating in the program.  There is no cost to have children participate in this endeavor.