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SALT LAKE CITY — Local start-up business leaders are partnering with the United Way of Utah to collect books for low-income children during the holiday season. Startup Santa is a competitive book drive with a leaderboard showing the results from each participating company.
A launch event for the Startup Santa book drive will be held Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at Church & State, 370 S. 300 East in Salt Lake City. The event will feature conversations with some of Utah's most successful entrepreneurs, including Aaron Skonnard of Pluralsight, Jill Layfield of Backcountry Group, and Mark Newman of HireVue.
The ratio of books to children in low-income neighborhoods is 1-to-300, according to the event organizers. More than 39 percent of children in Utah live in low-income households, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. There are nearly 35,000 low-income children in Utah County alone.
The event also marks the launch of the Start Foundation, which aims to help successful Utah companies give back to community. Attendees are asked to bring a children's book to donate and will be given a Santa hat in exchange.