The Sarasota Housing Authority will partner with the Sarasota Police Department once again for the annual "Books and Badges" literacy event. Books and Badges will be held on today at 3 p.m. to coincide with National Summer Learning Week. The dual-purpose event will provide free books for low-income children to read and mitigate against summer learning loss, as well as provide positive interaction with officers. Officers and representatives from the Sarasota Housing Authority will hand out books and ice cream to children to continue to connect and foster relationships and trust between the Sarasota Police Department and families in north Sarasota.

The event will feature Sarasota Police officers handing out books to more than 300 children ages 2 to 16 at 1912 N. Orange Ave. The program has been made possible through the support of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, the Education Foundation of Sarasota County and Sarasota County Libraries, with book donations provided by Algonquin Books for Young Readers and Workman Publishing, Candlewick Press, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster.