Last week, the Suffolk News-Herald ran an article about a book drive we’re helping out with this month.

The United Way is collecting books to put into the hands of needy children in the community. This is the second year of the program, which involves Suffolk businesses hosting a red wagon in their lobbies and inviting the public to donate new or gently used books, appropriate for ages infant through high school. The books are then distributed to Suffolk’s Title I schools for the children there to own.

The News-Herald also hosted the wagon last February, and we collected 932 books from our employees and the community. Allow me to point out that that is the all-time record so far, and was accomplished during the shortest month, albeit during a leap year. So far this time around, we have collected 132 books, which is great.

However, that means we’re off last year’s pace. At this rate, we will collect only about 400 books this time. And that’s just not acceptable.

According to Beth Cross, development manager for the Western Tidewater United Way, having books in the home teaches children that reading is important, and children who excel in reading perform better overall in their academics and career.

Now, Suffolk, I know that you have books lying around your home. There are probably some books in your home that your children have outgrown. Maybe you bought a few books for the nieces and nephews, but you never got around to giving them. You might have a bookstore gift card from Christmas that you still haven’t used.

In all of these cases, those books will surely do a special child far more good than they are doing the dust that is collecting on them at this very moment. You could leave them where they are and let them continue to collect dust.

The far better choice, however, would be to bring them to the Suffolk News-Herald office, at 130 S. Saratoga St. in the downtown area, and put them in the little red wagon. Our office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. We can even help if you want to bring a box full of books. Just get them out of your house, to our office, and we’ll hand them over to the United Way.

They will then go straight into the hands of Suffolk children who need them. Please help out.