37,000 Books Donated to New Mexico Schools

Half-a-Million Dollars Worth of Books Boost Gallup-McKinley County Schools

The school children of the Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools will get a major boost thanks to a massive book donation from the Massachusetts-based charity Reader To Reader, Inc.

Reader To Reader is donating 37,000 new books for grades kindergarten through grade 12 with a total value of half-a-million dollars. The books are being provided by Follett Educational Services. The first shipment of 22 pallets of books recently arrived, and a second shipment 22 pallet shipment will be arriving February 23, 2010.

“We hope this major book donation will give a real boost to the resources of the 35 schools in the Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools district, including 11 school on the Navajo Reservation” says David Mazor, founder and executive director of Reader of Reader. “We had the option of donating these books to any school district in the country but we selected Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools due our strong relationship with Navajo Pine High School in Navajo, NM.”

Reader to Reader has a long history of working with Gallup-McKinley County Schools, having previously donated over $100,000 in books and $50,000 worth of computers over the past decade to Navajo Pine High School in Navajo, New Mexico.

"Librarians across Gallup and McKinley County have been flocking in to pick up books from the Reader to Reader donation,” says Carol Sarath, Library Media Coordinator for Gallup McKinley County Schools. “I have never seen such excitement. They have been bringing trucks, husbands and custodians to help them haul away books by the box-full. The elementary dictionaries have been especially popular, but all of the books have been flying off the tables. Books are also being distributed to other schools beyond the 35 Public Schools in the county."

“Follett Educational Services (FES) is excited to be able to work once again with Reader to Reader in support of their efforts to provide educational resources for students who need them the most,” says Cornell Rollins, Vice President of Marketing at FES. “By providing materials to the libraries and classrooms in the Gallup-McKinley School District, we hope to promote lifetime learning and an enduring passion for reading.”