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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. What a week we have had! Yesterday two tractor trailers filled with 180,000 children’s books and textbooks left Springfield, Massachusetts on their way to Ellisville, Mississippi. This mammoth shipment would not be possible without the Herculean efforts of the Kiwanis Club of Springfield, Massachusetts and tireless 77-year-old Kiwanis member John Sessions. Mr. Sessions organized over 700 Springfield-area high school Key Club members to collect and sort tens of thousands of books. The Key Clubs at Central, Commerce, MacDuffie and Science and Technology in Springfield, Minnechaug Regional in Wilbraham and East Longmeadow and Longmeadow high schools all dug into this project and Baystate Health, Wal-Mart, Springfield Corrugated Box Co. all provided key resources that made the shipment possible. Reader To Reader book drives have been held all over the country, with books streaming in from as far as California, and none have been even a tenth as large as the Kiwanis Club of Springfield’s effort. We want to thank John Sessions and all the members of the Kiwanis Club of Springfield and their high school Key Clubs for devoting themselves to helping the schools devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So, how well are the books being received in the gulf states? "Books like these are absolutely a godsend," notes Linda Buford-Burks of the Mississippi School Boards Association. "The school districts will be able to get their libraries operational, and the children will have access to books of all kinds. It's exactly what they need.” To date, Reader To Reader has shipped over 250,000 books to rebuild school libraries, all without a penny of government money. Thank you to all the generous donors from across the U.S. for making this possible. Speaking of donations, this month I am pleased to announce one of the most generous and spectacular donations that we have ever received, and one that will have a profound impact on the academic achievement of hundreds of thousands of children. The Literacy Company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has generously donated over $375,000 worth of The Reader's Edge® Fluent Reading Software to Reader To Reader to be distributed free of charge to under-resourced schools throughout the United States. This is the largest software donation we have ever received and will enable each school to install The Reader's Edge software on ten computers free of charge with unlimited upgrades and lifetime free technical support. The Reader's Edge is a self-paced software program that teaches students how to unlearn the habits of slow readers and learn the habits and skills of Fluent Readers. Fluent Readers read better and faster, with improved comprehension and recall. And, students who master Fluent Reading skills get better grades. The response to The Literacy Company’s offer has been incredible.
“I look forward to a long term relationship with Reader To Reader,” said Richard Sutz, President & CEO of The Literacy Company. “I compliment you on the progress you've made and the gold-plated list of sponsors that have joined your cause. I'm proud that you feel The Literary Company can become a contributing sponsor.” Again, we want to thank Richard Sutz, President and CEO of The Literacy Company, for this wonderful donation. New schools this added month: Hamilton Elementary, Cartersville, GA Waite Middle School, Norwalk, CA McKenzie High School, McKenzie, AL Bowe Elementary, Chicopee, Massachusetts Goddard Elementary School, Brockton, Massachusetts Kennedy Elementary School, Brockton, Massachusetts How great is the need? Goddard Elementary only had 100 children’s books in their whole school. We’ll fix that! That's all for now. Until next month, Sincerely,
David Mazor
Please help us with a tax-deductible donation. Here are some of our recent books shipments: Kennedy Elementary, Brockton, MA
Hamilton Elementary, Cartersville, GA
Waite Middle School, Norwalk, CA
McKenzie High School, McKenzie, AL
Brent Elementary, Washington, DC
Bowe Elementary, Chicopee, MA
James Foster Madison Elementary, Monroe, LA
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