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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. People often ask where we get the thousands of books we ship each week. They come from so many different sources. They come in by the box load from generous donors such as yourselves that mail them from all over the country. They come from school and community book drives, Girl Scout troops, Boy Scout troops, Eagle Scout projects, Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah projects are just some of the sources for the never ending stream of books that we count on. We also get books donated by leading publishers such as Random House, Charlesbridge Publishing, Modern Publishing, and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Every spring we are honored to get a mountain of books from a very special place, The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in Washington, DC is “is dedicated to advancing the human rights movement through providing innovative support to courageous human rights defenders around the world.” For 27 years the RFK Memorial has given out the annual RFK Book Award. The award celebrates the book which “most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes, his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity. “ The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was founded in 1980 with the proceeds from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s best-selling biography, “Robert Kennedy and His Times.” Mr. Schlesinger now co-chairs the Award with news correspondent John Seigenthaler, each year selecting a panel of four judges to choose the winner. The RFK Book Awards have received international recognition as one of the most prestigious honors an author can achieve. Hundred of just published books are entered each year, with multiple copies of each title supplied for the judges, and every year after the judging is completed these books are donated to Reader To Reader. We then sort and ship the books to historically African-American and Native American Colleges all across the country. Among the recipients are: Tougaloo College, Bethune-Cookman College, Dine College, Tohono O’odham Community College, Blackfeet Community College, and Salish-Kootenai Community College, to name just a few. I asked Debbie Pellish of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial why they had selected Reader To Reader to distribute the books. “With the donation of these books we are thrilled to be able to participate on a yearly basis with Reader To Reader. You are supremely dedicated to reaching under-served areas that need books so desperately,” notes Pellish. Our special thanks to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial for their continued support and belief in Reader To Reader. Speaking of needing books, several years ago we began aiding Red Lake High School in Red lake Minnesota. Located on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, you may remember the school from the tragic shooting that left 10 dead in 2005. Here is a recent note from their hard-working librarian.
Lastly, we are in the middle of our spring fundraising drive. Thank you to everyone who has donated. We put every penny to work as wisely and efficiently as possible. If you have not received a fundraising letter it is probably because you are not on our mailing list. We don’t want you to be left out! Our mailing address for monetary donations and books is:
Reader To Reader
Or donate via credit card online. Until next month, Sincerely,
David Mazor
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