Books are a great source of knowledge and entertainment. In a technologically heavy world, encouraging children to read can be difficult, especially if entertaining books are not readily available to them. United Fitness Partners’ Pennsylvania clubs hosted in-club book donation drives in honor of National Library Lovers Month. The franchise group was looking for ways to engage the local community during the winter months and came up with the idea of hosting the book drive.

The drive lasted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 16. The book collections were held in Planet Fitness^® clubs. UFP’s Uniontown, Latrobe and North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, clubs partnered with West Mifflin Area High School, which was also collecting books in honor of Read Across America, to provide the donations to the Best of the Batch Foundation. Books were also donated to nonprofits Rainbow Kitchen and Shared Blessings. There were about 3,200 donations given away for children and local residents in need.

“We are proud of our members who quickly came together to support our donation drive and were thrilled to partner with West Mifflin High School to give back to the Best of the Batch Foundation who will use the donations toward their Batch Pack and summer reading programs,” said Devin Onorato, club manager at UFP’s North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, club.

Best of the Bath Foundation is a nonprofit that helps improve children’s lives in distressed communities. One of their initiatives is running a seven-week summer basketball camp where the kids read and discuss pre-selected books.

Like many PF^® franchisees, United Fitness Partners is constantly giving back to its local community. Last year, UFP’s Pennsylvania and Ohio clubs also hosted a book drive.