Mayor Deegan's River City Readers expands literacy campaign thanks to $1 million donation

• The River City Readers will begin mailing a free book every month to all 4-year-olds in Jacksonville.
• GATE Petroleum's philanthropic foundation donated $1 million to fund the mailing initiative. Former Mayor John Peyton, president and CEO of GATE, founded a similar program when he was in office.
• Mayor Donna Deegan started the River City Readers, a literacy campaign, in 2024. It encourages kids and their caregivers to read daily, logging their progress in an app.

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan and former Mayor John Peyton announced recently that the River City Readers will begin mailing a free book every month to all 4-year-olds in Jacksonville. Books will also be distributed in childcare centers. The city will announce details for how to register for this new initiative, called The Mayor's Book Club, in the coming weeks.

A $1 million donation from the philanthropic arm of Gate Petroleum — of which Peyton is the president and CEO — will fund the book club as part of Deegan’s literacy campaign for school-aged children. The gift ensures that the program, to be administered by nonprofit Kids Hope Alliance, will run for four years. Deegan said she hopes future mayors will continue the book club.

“[Literacy] is the foundation of everything: the kids’ success in school, to economic opportunities as they grow up, to a healthier community for everybody,” Deegan said to dozens of elementary schoolers gathered in the City Hall atrium.

Deegan said this latest chapter of River City Readers serves as a revival of Mayor Peyton’s Book Club from nearly two decades ago, which also mailed free books to children. At the time, Peyton said, education was the number one issue in Jacksonville. He wanted to do something outside of the school board. So, he targeted early literacy development. When Peyton left office in 2011, there were 70,000 book club members. Former book recipients, now older, approach him with fond memories of the program.

It was this legacy, Deegan said, that inspired her to start the River City Readers in 2024. The program encourages kids and their caregivers to read daily and log their progress through an app. Its first year saw hundreds of participants with nearly 3 million minutes logged between them.

River City Readers also has a bookmobile which travels throughout the city, giving out books. After the mayors' announcement, Deegan had one more surprise for the assembled children. The bookmobile was stationed right outside, in James Weldon Johnson Park. The kids eagerly lined up for their turn browsing the van's shelves, with Deegan next to them.

“This is going to be a great partnership,” Peyton said. “We look forward to making Jacksonville the most learning-friendly, kindergarten-ready city in America.”