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Dear Friend of Reader To Reader, I hope you enjoy this newsletter about the Reader To Reader Book Project. Our success is very much due to your donations of books, postage money, and most of all your generous spirit. Please forward this newsletter and help us spread the word. This past month has been a wonderful time for us. We have been busy making the rounds of our local book sales in towns such as Northampton, Belchertown, Sunderland, Bernardston, Goshen, and South Hadley, just to name a few, and have amassed a mountain of books. I always joke that I feel like we are giant squirrels collecting nuts for the winter. In this case we are collecting a mountain of books that we will be shipping out to schools over the winter. I also want to acknowledge Mr. Chris Jowaisas who scouted the Seattle book sale and picked up a number of boxes for us. We’ve also been shipping like crazy lately, but we are definitely taking them in faster than they go out! I want to share an email I received a short while ago.
Wow! It always blows me away how many people feel passionately about getting books into the hands of needy children. I was especially amazed that someone who is unemployed took the time to write to see if he could help. Now, if we can just help Elmer get a job all would be right with the world. I also want to tell you about a wonderful new partnership we are developing With Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Working with two of the bookseller’s energetic community relations managers, Sarah Clark and Gail Lehtomaki, we have put together a regional sponsorship that will see the book retailer donate thousands of new books to Reader To Reader. They will also provide $1,000 to awarded to schools for special book purchases. On October 24, the first steps in this partnership came to fruition with a ceremony held at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Together we honored William N. DeBerry Elementary School in Springfield, Massachusetts for their commitment to strengthening the quality of education and literacy at their school. Earlier this fall Reader To Reader donated over 600 children’s books to DeBerry Elementary, and the October 24 ceremony offered the opportunity to provide the needy school with an additional $750 worth of new children’s books courtesy of Reader To Reader donors and a $250 cash award from Barnes & Noble Booksellers. DeBerry Elementary was selected because their principal, Kevin McCaskill, and his teachers are working hard to improve the literacy rate at their school even though they face a lot of challenges. The very first one is poverty. 89% of DeBerry’s students receive free or reduced-price lunch, as compared to the state average of 29%. These kids grow up in homes that don’t have extra money for discretionary book purchases, and it makes their school library all the more critical. I’m so pleased that principal McCaskill has been so active in getting books into his students’ hands. When I first spoke with principal McCaskill about Reader to Reader’s desire to aid his school, we both agreed that we had the same goal--to see his students go to college! At the ceremony, principal Kevin McCaskill welcomed the donations and it was a delight watching his students fill their baskets with new books. “On behalf of the William N. DeBerry Elementary School, I would like to thank you and your organization, Reader To Reader, for the donation of books and the Barnes & Noble gift certificate for our scholars at DeBerry,” McCaskill said. “It is truly an outstanding and wonderful occurrence when children benefit from the generosity of others. We welcome your gifts with open arms and hearts; for we know that these materials will lead our scholars to read on a more regular basis because they now are armed with books that they can take home or access in school. “The Reader to Reader Program is a wonderful concept that can capture the imagination of children through reading. The Internet is great, but there is nothing compares to reading a good book. I hope this program expands to help even more children know the enjoyment of reading. “Our many thanks and may God continue to bless you and your organization.” Dignitaries attending the ceremony included United States Congressman Richard Neal, Candice Lopes from the Springfield Mayor’s Office, Diane Cohen and Dr. Mary Elizabeth Beech from the Springfield Superintendent of Schools Office, and Ken Lopez, president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, which represents over 500 rare book dealers across the U.S. During the ceremony Congressman Richard Neal enthusiastically praised Reader To Reader’s work and said, “I’m so delighted to be here for such a positive announcement as this!” Neal went on to speak passionately about “the new horizons that are explored each time you read.” It is our hope that this regional partnership with Barnes & Noble will serve as a pilot program for a national program that will bring tens of thousands of new books to school libraries. Thanks Barnes & Noble! To read the Springfield Republican’s coverage of the ceremony go to: http://www.readertoreader.org/news/newbooks.htm Also, much thanks to Tom Shea for his fine article on Reader To Reader. http://www.readertoreader.org/news/springfieldrepublican.htm. The phone has been ringing off the hook with book donations! Speaking of new books, I would very much like to thank author Bernie Michaels for donating 200 copies of his book How to Take Pictures You'll be Proud to Show. Over the past few weeks schools have been enthusiastically emailing in the number of copies they would like for their school. They will have a wonderful new resource because of your thoughtfulness. Here are highlights of just some of our recent book shipments: Davidson High School, St. Josephs, LA
Navajo Pine High School, Navajo, NM
Southern University at New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Port Gibson High School, Port Gibson, MS
John Essex School, Demopolis, AL
MS Palmer High School, Marks, MS
Bridge Academy, Springfield, MA
That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Special thanks to June Turcotte, Corrina “Corky” Lopez, Amy Johnson, Jennifer So, and Rohan Mascarenhas for volunteering their time to collect, organize and box up books. Until next month, Sincerely,
David Mazor
To be added to this newsletter please email dmazor@readertoreader.org |