|
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 month I am pleased to share with you the perspective of one of our terrific, energetic work-study students, Meredith Wilson. Meredith is one of our seven Amherst College work-study students, and as a second year work-study student with us, she does far more than just sort and pack books. She plays a key role in helping us plan the direction of Reader To Reader, including our new Navajo Mentoring Program, which I will tell you all about next month. She is extraordinarily bright and dynamic, and we are grateful to have as a part of our team. I Don't Work At My Job, I Make A Difference I first learned about Reader to Reader during freshman year at my college's Job Fair. I was signing up for interviews left and right, not really sure what type of job I wanted, but positive I didn't want to work in the dining hall. When I stopped at the Reader to Reader table, David Mazor, director of the organization, was very enthusiastic when he explained the mission. Though the job description was a bit fuzzy, I liked the idea of working with books so I signed up. A week later David asked me when I could start. Being the avid book-worm that I am, I knew I would love working at Reader to Reader right away. Not only did I get the chance to send out books hundreds of different schools, I got to pause and read a few too. It didn't take very long for me to stop thinking of it as just a work-study job but something more. Having gone to a few public schools in low-income areas, Reader to Reader is a bit more personal for me. Now mid-way through sophomore year, I can't imagine college without coming into our basement and sorting out picture books for elementary schools. A few days ago, David received an email from a elementary school librarian asking how she may start receiving books for her under-funded school library. We made a box of K-5 books for them that day. The mission of Reader to Reader is really simple: Send books to schools that need them. And that's exactly what we do. Unlike most non-profit organizations, there isn't any red tape or time-consuming procedures that we need to go through in order to reach schools in need. We just do it. Though the operation seems small and simple, I believe the results are immeasurably significant. I'm happy to be apart of such a great team of volunteers who really appreciate the mission of Reader to Reader. And with our recent expansion to mentoring at the Navajo Reservation, I'm more than excited to see how far we can go.
--Meredith Wilson A Book For Every Child To Take Home As a teacher at William N. DeBerry Elementary School in Springfield, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to your organization for the books that you recently contributed to our school. The students in our school rarely have books at home to read. The books you donated were used to replenish our school and classroom libraries and there were enough books left over to allow each child to take home a book to keep. Each child chose their book on the day that a city-wide at-home reading challenge was started and it gave our scholars a great boost with which to begin the challenge. The donated books, coupled with the challenge are helping the children to become life-long readers. Thanks again for the great work you organization does. You are making a difference. Yours Sincerely,
Mary Luff Donate via credit card online.
Reader To Reader
|