In order to help children stuck in hospitals during the quarantine, Junior Morgan King has set up a program. It is where people from around the state can submit a video of themselves reading a book that will be sent to the young patients. 

This program is dubbed “Children’s Storytime,” and because of the Children’s Miracle Network, these story videos are being sent to 170 children’s hospitals.

It all started when King saw one of the head librarians at the Hershey Public Library posting videos of herself reading to her website. 

King is good friends with this librarian, and when she saw the videos she thought, “You know what? I’m bored and I have a few books lying around, why don’t I do a few as well?”

She then asked a few friends to help and ended up with over 20 videos in the first week. After receiving good results, King wanted to come up with a way to expand this, so she came up with the “Children’s Storytime” program. She reached out to Penn State Medical Center to see if the Pediatric Hospital would benefit from these videos, and together they managed to get it to the Children’s Miracle Network. They have been able to share their videos with children in hospitals all over.

However, starting this program wasn’t easy. 

According to King, putting out her first video was really scary. “I wondered if I was doing okay and giving enough emotion,” she said, “I was really nervous that the feedback would be negative.”

Fortunately, her fear of negative feedback has not come true. The program is still in the beginning phases of production, but has been doing pretty well so far. According to King’s contact at the Penn State Medical Center, all of the feedback has been very positive. Over 20 people have participated in this program, and King, Jenna Baker, Yamil Tenorio, and others have even been submitting multiple videos. 

“I think it’s very beneficial for people who rely on face-to-face storytelling for their children, especially in the midst of the pandemic,” Baker said, “Even outside of COVID-19 it could prove beneficial for many families who just need a way to entertain their children, especially if they aren’t able to make it to those in-person story book readings.”

The very first video that they have on their YouTube channel is actually of one of their older readers who lives in Philadelphia, where they read “When Will it be Spring.” Other titles like “Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Brave Little Mouse,” and “Hop in Pop” have been read as well. 

Tenorio joined this program when he saw King’s post asking for volunteers on Instagram. “I could only imagine being in the hospital worried about the world around in this uncertain time. With the program, I am excited that all of us are doing a great thing for children,” he said. 

The first batch of storytime videos were uploaded to YouTube on March 30th. Since then, King has uploaded three videos everyday, save for Sundays. Most of the books read are children’s books in English, but a few of them have been in Spanish. King hopes to get even more languages represented soon, and she is also hoping to start a series of reading chapter books for the older children.

To submit a video, you can either text King at (717) 736-0036, message her on her Instagram, @morganking1533, or email [email protected]. You can also view their channel here.

Tenorio’s advice on submitting a video is to have fun with the book you read, don’t stress about it, and enjoy yourself, while Baker wants to remind everyone how rewarding this process can be. Taking 15 minutes out of your day to read a children’s book could really make another child’s day after all.

“It’s cliché, but it honestly does warm my heart,” King said, “Not just the fact that we’re helping people, but also knowing that people care enough during this time to take a few minutes out of their day to read a book and send it to me.”