Once a week since the summer, Ruth Demby has lugged boxes of children’s books to Norwood Apartments on Cleveland Highway with a handful of volunteers in tow. Armed with a curriculum outlined by the United Way, the associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Gainesville meets with mothers and small children for a singular goal: to ensure every child is read to by a parent by the time he or she enter kindergarten. “The parent really is the child’s first teacher,” Demby said.