DAYLO students with Honey the DAYLO bear
Founded in 2021 at Beaufort High School, DAYLO, or Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, is a student-led book club and community literacy service group with chapters across South Carolina. As an ongoing community service project, the Beaufort-based DAYLO chapters host free read-aloud events—called the Teddy Bear Picnics—for young children and their families at the Port Royal Farmers Market on the first Saturday of each month, in collaboration with the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.
In partnership with the National Park Service’s Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, the Saturday, March 2, edition of the Teddy Bear Picnic read-aloud will feature a very special guest reading at 10:00 a.m., with an encore at 11:00 a.m., as the Read with a Ranger program returns.
NPS Park Ranger Katherine Freeman will be reading from the children’s picture book If I Were a Park Ranger, written by Catherine Stier and illustrated by Patrick Corrigan. The book invites young readers to learn about all of the various roles Park Rangers serve in, and why our National Parks are so important. Inspired by If I Were a Park Ranger, there will also be art projects available for attendees to make their own Park Rangers.
DAYLO student volunteers will be assisting with Read with a Ranger, and also reading other children’s picture books throughout the morning, from 9:30 a.m. to noon, at the Farmers Market by the gazebo in Naval Heritage Park, 1615 Ribault Road, Port Royal.
Following the Teddy Bear Picnic, the public is also invited to attend a noon walking tour with the National Park Service, exploring the site of Camp Saxton.
The March 2 Teddy Bear Picnic and Read with a Ranger are part of the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s 8th annual March Forth, with free and ticketed programs to be held on March 2 and 3. For more details about March Forth, please visit https://marchforth2024.eventbrite.com.
To learn more about DAYLO, please visit www.instagram.com/beaufort_daylo. To learn more about the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, visit www.nps.gov/reer. To learn more about the weekly Port Royal Farmers Market, visit www.portroyalfarmersmarket.com.
