On Friday, April 26, two-thousand 5-year-olds will flood the Fullerton College campus for the annual KinderCarminata.

MEChA is holding a book drive to donate to 65 kindergarten classes. MEChA is asking that all books be in “mildly used” condition.

“The schools and their budgets being what they are, they are thankful to receive something like this,” said Adela Lopez, Department Coordinator for Ethnic Studies and Adviser for MEChA.

Their goal is to donate a minimum of 2 to 3 books for each classroom and contribute to the schools’ library collection.

Each book is stamped with a sticker marking where the book came from and it was given to the college graduating class of 2029 as a reminder that they are expected to go to college and graduate.

Each student will also receive a certificate stating that they attended their first day of college. Many of the kindergarten students who come to the event are the first ones out of their entire family to be on a college campus and attend a class.

“It’s part of the Chicana movement experience; education should be the right of every child especially in a country like ours,” said Lopez.

The schools that will be participating are from La Habra, Fullerton, and Anaheim. The program will have the young students attend their official first day of college with real classes, and fun and games as well.

KinderCarminata plays a role in MEChA’s goals which are to develop educated leadership in the chicana community and to bring up the society as a whole.

“We come together to show that college is a path that [the kids] can go down and give them a sense of what it will be like,” said Chris Lamm, Professor of Child Development and Ethnic Studies who has helped organize KinderCarminata for many years.

For a list of acceptable books, students can visit the Child Development website, http://childdev.fullcoll.edu Donations can be brought to the library, the Office of Special Programs, or in the Social Science Division Office. Donors are asked to put a Post-It note inside the book with their name on it. The books will be presented to the participating schools at KinderCaminata. The donation deadline is April 22.