Hooray for Margaret Skoog!

We want to congratulate Margaret Skoog on her donations to Davis-Ramoth School in Selawik, Alaska.

Over the past year she donated 15 large boxes of school supplies and 23 boxes of books weighing 516.5 pounds!

The school supplies included pens and pencils, crayons, scissors, construction paper, current magazines, and even bandages for the school nurse box.

Come summer she plans to visit the tiny village that has a population of 772.

“We will be taking our suitcases full of school needs,” Margaret reports.

Way to go Margaret!

Merry Xmas From Ghana

Dear Reader to Reader,

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

The Kasoa computers arrived a while back and have been put to good use.

The Akim Oda and Akim Awisa computers are currently being processed through customs in Accra, and should be getting to the schools shortly. We are all very appreciative of your help and generosity.

Thanks and Best Wishes.

Robert Baafi
Ghana Book Project
Kasoa, Akim Oda, and Akim Awisa, Ghana

(Reader to Reader is helping three schools in Ghana set up resource centers which include libraries and computer labs.)

A Poem for Reader to Reader

A special thank you to donor Dawn Murry wrote this wonderful poem about us that's perfect for the holidays!

Dear Reader to Reader,
You're really a leader
in matching up kids with a book!

Teen mothers, too,
get a foot up from you
and Chef Bill as they learn how to cook.

With poems invented
and scrapbooks intended
for wee ones these moms hold so dear;

the week is a blur,
word and food is the lure
and you'll do it all over next year!

From down in the basement
you ship out the tomes meant
for anyone needing a read.

Libraries and schools
get books and great tools
to help grow the minds that they feed.

The Navajo Nation
gets more than a ration
of books in a truck twice a year.

All over the globe,
wherever we rove,
the fruits of your labors are clear.

So thanks to you all,
the great and the small,
for all that you are and you do.

Book lovers, unite!
R to R is alright!
Use this gift for some books that are new.

(In honor of my friends, the Mozels)

Amelia Peabody Foundation Grant Boosts Springfield Mentoring Program

Reader to Reader has received a major grant from The Amelia Peabody Foundation in support of the Springfield Mentoring Program.

The program connects public school students in Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield, Massachusetts with college reading mentors.

“We are very grateful for The Amelia Peabody Foundation’s support,” said Reader to Reader founder David Mazor. “The grant enables us to expand the mentoring program to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and we look forward to sparking the students’ imaginations and building their academic skills, as we have in Chicopee and Springfield.”

First launched in 2008, Reader to Reader’s mentoring programs help nonreader and reluctant readers become engaged readers through daily online correspondence with specially trained college reading mentors.

Just in Time for the Holidays,15,000 Books for the Navajo Nation

Just in time for the holidays, 15,000 books, as well as, computers and toys are heading for the Navajo Nation.

The donation is the second that Reader to Reader has made this year to the Navajo nation Library and brings the 2011 total books donated to the Navajo Nation to over 50,000 books. 13,000 new children's books were donated to 33 schools in August.

Navajo Nation Library director Irving Nelson commented on the quality of the books. “The books we get from Reader to Reader are outstanding. This past year we were able to discard 17,000 old, worn-out books and replace them with the great books that Reader to Reader donates. There are books for every age, every reading level, and every interest.”

The books left Reader to Reader on Tuesday morning, and Irving Nelson will spend five days driving them back to Window Rock, Arizona. It is a long trip but definitely worth it says Nelson.

“I look forward to coming back in July for the next 15,000 books. These books not only help our library, but they also are used all over the Navajo Nation. We deliver them to Boys and Girls clubs, correctional facilities, and senior centers as well.”

The books came from lots of sources, including publishers and individual donors. The Bement School in Deerfield, Massachusetts collected over 2,000 children's books.

“The books took six months to collect, but only three hours to load thanks to a great team of hard-working volunteers,” notes Reader to Reader founder David Mazor.

The latest shipment also includes 40 boxes of books for area schools, and a batch of computers to replace antiquated computers at Navajo Pine Middle School in Navajo, New Mexico. The computers were donated through Reader to Reader’s computer donation program that supplies refurbished Dell computers to build computer labs and outfit classrooms.

Hundreds of books and donated toys will be given out to children in time for the holidays. In addition, over a thousand new children’s books were donated to Navajo Nation First Lady Martha Shelly. The First Lady travels across the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation to read to children and give out books to encourage literacy.

Books Headed to the Himalayas!

We are busy packing our first six boxes of books for the library at the Himalayan Public School in Uttarkhand, India.

The school is a private, English-speaking school serving the rural poor. There are about 30 underpaid teachers, an excellent administration, and 525 wonderful children. The children at the Himalayan Public School generally come from rural, subsistence farming families earning less that $2 per day.

Our partner in the project, the Himalayan Education Foundation, has been working with the school for three years and reports on the great progress the school is making:

“When we started working with them in 2008, they had 8 grades and fewer than 20 books on one small shelf! Now they have 12 grades - but still very few books. In spite of this, they have recently won an award for Excellence from the State of Uttarkhand-- their students had the highest scores in the state on the standardized high school tests! They can do amazing things with very little.”