Now helping tots read

Toys are for Christmas time, but literacy is needed all year long.

With that in mind, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation kicked off its new Book a Buck initiative in Wheaton Friday morning.

DuPage County Marines and U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam gathered at a UPS store to laud the project. UPS is partnering with Toys for Tots as a donation site.

Toys for Tots is typically known for taking toy donations at grocery stores around Christmas time. The toys are then given to underprivileged children.

The new program, called Buck a Book, will collect $1 donations at various locations, including UPS stores, to purchase books for underprivileged children in or near the communities where the donations are collected.

The program is the first year-round initiative Toys for Tots has ever had.

Roskam praised the initiative as typical of the acts of patriotism and good deeds he's seen Marines perform both at home and overseas, including Iraq.

"You can read all the gloom and doom you want to in the newspapers," Roskam said. "It's my hope that you'll be encouraged by what you see today."