Scripps Howard Fund Distributes 2 Millionth Book With WEWS in Cleveland

The Scripps Howard Fund has distributed the 2 millionth book provided through “If You Give a Child a Book …,” reaching the milestone as its childhood literacy campaign marks 10 years of book distributions.

The milestone book was handed out September 23, 2026, during a Scholastic Book Fair in Cleveland. Students attending the fair selected age-appropriate books to take home and add to their personal libraries. WEWS, The E.W. Scripps Company’s ABC-affiliated television station in Cleveland, partnered with the Fund on the event.

The program’s next phase is already funded at a substantial scale. Support from thousands of donors will allow the Scripps Howard Fund to invest more than $1.3 million and distribute over 200,000 free books to children at underserved schools across the United States during the 2026-27 school year. With those distributions, the campaign expects its cumulative total since launching in 2016 to surpass 2.2 million books.

The Fund operates free book fairs at nearly 100 partner Title I schools nationwide. Rather than receiving a predetermined title, participating students choose books that interest them and keep them. The stated goal is to provide every student at participating schools with 10 books annually, supporting reading outside the classroom and helping children build home libraries.

“Access to books is access to opportunity,” Scripps Howard Fund President and CEO Meredith Delaney said in the announcement. She described the 2 million-book total as evidence of what communities can accomplish when they work together to expand children’s access to reading.

The campaign is supported by The E.W. Scripps Company, Scripps employees, communities served by the media company and members of the Scripps and Howard families. For broadcasters, the Cleveland distribution also illustrates a concrete role for local stations beyond programming and advertising: WEWS used its community position and affiliation with Scripps to support an in-market event tied to a national campaign.

No audience, fundraising-response or donor-conversion figures specific to WEWS were disclosed. Still, the number of books distributed, participating schools, planned investment and national distribution target provide measurable outcomes that distinguish the initiative from a general station-awareness promotion.