Reader To Reader

The books that you donated to my class are amazing!

2012-02-16T07:53:00.001-05:00

Dear David,

THANK YOU! The books that you donated to my class are amazing. The kids are always asking if they can go to the library. Several students have come up to me with the biggest grins saying that they can read the whole book. They are so grateful and amazed that you donate books to kids across America. The kids have made you some thank you cards. A few of them tried to thank you for a series of books called No David! but, it might be a bit confusing because your name is David.

Again, thank you,

Rebecca Javadi, First Grade Teacher
Marvin L. Winans Academy of Performing Arts
Detroit, MI

5 Computers Donated to Springfield Family Support Programs

2012-02-13T07:58:00.002-05:00

Reader to Reader is proud to support The Springfield Family Support Programs of Springfield, MA, with the donation of 5 computers.

The computers come through Reader to Reader’s computer donation program, which supplies refurbished Dell Optiplex 620 computers.

Among the uses of the computers will be online job searches and resume writing.

The Springfield Family Support Programs' executive director, Cindy Storall, coordinator Emily Rodriguez, Family Support Worker Maria Nunez, and volunteer Anthony Rodriguez visited us to pick up the computers and to learn more about resources available to their organization.

SFSP provides family support and education programs to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect by building parents’ nurturing skills and knowledge of healthy child development and connecting families to each other, to their community, and resources.

Obama Administration Grants State Waivers to No Child Left Behind

2012-02-10T11:26:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, President Obama announced that 10 states have received waivers to No Child Left Behind (NCLB,) which will remove the requirement that all students will perform at or above proficient in reading and math by 2014. Currently, the nation stands at 32% proficiency according to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress. With the situation getting increasingly desperate and budget cuts and teacher turnover at an all-time high, there is little chance the country will improve this statistic in two short years. The Center for Educational Policy reports that this year, nearly half of all schools failed to meet standards required by law.

These waivers come as a welcome reprieve for overburdened and underfunded schools.

States receiving the waiver are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. New Mexico was denied a waiver, but is currently working with administration to improve their proposal. 28 additional states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have stated their intent to file for this waiver. Only one state has openly announced their intent not to apply: Montana. (See image for more details.)

Waivers were granted to states whose proposals showed a solid plan to prepare their students for college and careers, set new goals for improving proficiency, reduce achievement gaps and focus support on schools that are struggling. These changes to federal policy mean that there will be more room for innovative reform efforts, the arts, and programs that foster critical thinking and a well-rounded education. Education reform is no longer a “one size fits all” policy.

President Obama’s action to create a more flexible education improvement plan came unilaterally and without the approval of Congress, whose own efforts to reform NCLB have been slow due to bipartisan disagreements. In his announcement, Obama said “if we’re serious about helping our children reach their potential, the best ideas aren’t going to come from Washington alone. Our job is to harness those ideas, and to hold states and schools accountable for making them work.”

The waivers will allow states to implement more flexible programming and reduce the pressure to perform well on standardized tests. Other metrics of success can be used in evaluating student performance, and teachers will be able to teach outside of the test once more. Schools will no longer be held accountable for a lack of adequate yearly progress (AYP,) instead finding more meaningful ways to measure growth and progress.

One of the more positive outcomes of NCLB was the mandate that all schools must test students grades 3-8 and track their performance based on certain subgroups, including students with learning disabilities, minority students, and ELL/ESL students. Under the waiver, 9 states will be able to create a “super subgroup,” putting all of these students in one less-achieving group. Many groups are concerned that this may reduce attention to the individual needs of the more specific subgroups.

Whatever the negative side effects of these waivers, there is a definite reason to celebrate. By September, waivered states will no longer be required to undergo the painful and unjust punishments for under-performance NCLB required. Many schools supported by Reader to Reader have reported the negative effects of having to fire half their staff, firing their principals no matter how wonderful they were, or even having to shut down their school. One school in New Mexico, whose students had responded incredibly to our book donations and mentoring programs, had to cut back their participation in our programs because the restrictions placed on them under NCLB left them no room for creative programming. Reader to Reader anticipates an increase in free-reading programs that will improve the nation’s proficiency in reading, and create more life-long learners.

For information about your state’s testing scores, please visit http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/. You can also learn about state and federal scores for individual schools or districts by visiting www.greatschools.com.

(Stay tuned for our next article: 8th grade reading scores and the Mason-Dixon Line.)

Win a Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner for Two From Chef Bill & Help Reader to Reader!

2012-02-06T10:21:00.001-05:00

For the second year in a row, Chef Bill Collins has generously offered to prepare a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner for two cooked in your own home with all proceeds from the online auction going to Reader to Reader.

Chef Bill (www.chefbill.com) is a personal chef in Western Massachusetts. He is offering a four-course dinner to the winning bidder, to be prepared in their home on February 14, 2012. The lucky couple will select the menu, and enjoy an evening of food, fun, and relaxation. Quite often, Chef Bill’s dinners turn into an impromptu cooking lesson. Having a Chef Bill dinner is like having your own cooking lesson TV show right in your kitchen!

Chef Bill will travel anywhere for this dinner. For details, please visit his website, www.chefbill.com

Chef Bill Collins has operated his business, Chef Bill, Inc, since 2001. He has cooked for many people (including some very famous folks) throughout New England and beyond. He also does cooking lesson parties, cooking lessons, Romantic Dinners for Two, and small dinner parties. He teaches classes for the public at Stonewall Kitchen and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and is a popular celebrity chef on WWLP-TV.

Place your bid at www.chefbill.com and have an amazing, delicious, fun-filled night while helping us do important work all over the U.S. and across the globe!

St. Michael Indian School Gets Rejuvenated Library

2012-01-31T13:12:00.004-05:00

(Reader to Reader sent 40 boxes of books to help rejuvenate the St. Michael Indian School Library. The school is located on the Navajo Nation in St. Michaels, Arizona.)

Dear Reader to Reader,

Thank you so much!! The books are phenomenal that you sent. Every time a student comes in the library, they are shocked by the quantity and the quality of our new books! This will definitely help our students' love of reading develop, and it is making our library stronger.

I'm currently working on cataloging and finding shelving for all of the books. I'm having a wonderful time; I couldn't wait to come back to work from break! The next time you see our library, it will be unrecognizable from when you first saw it.

Thank you!

Melissa Coles
St. Michael Indian School
St. Michaels, Arizona

15 computers and tons of books!!

2012-01-25T06:12:00.004-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

I received 15 computers and tons!! of books from you this past fall. I am writing to say thank you!

The computers have been put to very good use in our Read Naturally program.

The books are being used as incentives for students making gains in their reading scores. I've enclosed several pictures.

Once again, thank you.

Ann Marie Lake
Reading Coach
Warren Community Elementary School

Report Finds New Mexico is Worst State for Children

2012-01-19T08:18:00.003-05:00

New York, January 18, 2012 -- A strong relationship has been found among state tax
rates, the size of state investments in children and children’s quality-of-life, according to the STATE Child Well-Being Index (CWI). The report, Investing in Public Programs Matters: How State Policies Impact Children’s Lives, was released January 18th by the Foundation for Child Development (FCD), is the first ever to provide a comprehensive measure of children’s quality-of-life on a state-by-state basis.

“Because less than 10 percent of the federal budget is invested in children’s programs, state spending has a large impact on children’s well-being,” says Ruby Takanishi, President of FCD. “With this new measure, we can see proof of the direct impact of state policies: when states invest in children, children do better.”

The STATE CWI draws from a richer data set than previous state-level studies of child
well-being, assessing children’s quality-of-life in each state across 25 indicators clustered into seven domains (Family Economic Well-Being, Health, Safe/Risky Behavior, Educational Attainment, Community Engagement, Social Relationships, and
Emotional/Spiritual Well-Being) and comparing them across states. In addition, this
report includes new findings about the relationships between state policies and selected economic and demographic factors.

The report can be accessed at FCD’s website.

Key findings from the report include:

 Higher State Taxes Are Better for Children. States with higher tax rates were
found to have higher child well-being values.

 Government Programs Matter. Greater investments in government programs
are strongly related to better quality-of-life for children in a state.
Specifically, the amount of per pupil spending on education, the limits of Medicaid child eligibility thresholds and the levels of Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) benefits show substantial correlations with child wellbeing.

 The Best and Worst States for Children: The states with the highest child wellbeing index values were New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Utah,
Connecticut and Minnesota.

The states with the lowest index values were New Mexico, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Nevada.

 Child Well-Being Varies Greatly Among States. Not only did overall child
well-being values range tremendously from state to state, but great variation was
also found in specific indicators such as the child poverty rate (three times higher
in Mississippi than in Vermont, for example) and the rate of children without
health insurance (five times higher in Texas than in Massachusetts).

“Although states are currently revenue-starved, this is exactly the wrong time to reduce taxes,” says Takanishi. “The revenues generated by taxes should be used to invest more in the education and health of our children. Policymakers must recognize that the cost of shortchanging children today is too high a price to pay in the future.”

The report also makes recommendations for what state governments and the federal
government must do to protect investments in the health and education of our children.

William O’Hare, primary author of the report, states, “When we don’t invest in children, we see real consequences. In this time of economic uncertainty, it is critical that we do a better job of helping children become the productive workers and engaged citizens of tomorrow.”

This report was funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Reader to Reader Launches Partnership with Dartmouth College

2012-01-13T09:00:00.003-05:00

Reader to Reader is proud to announce a new partnership with Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

This partnership, called Many Paths, centers around our mentoring program and will create a new multimedia college access mentoring program aimed at boosting Native American high school students’ success at navigating the college admissions process.

In addition to learning more about how to apply to school, participating students will also explore the ins and outs of college life and the many careers that come from a college education.

The pilot program will launch this February with Dartmouth college students producing weekly educational videos and using Skype to conference call with students attending the St. Michael Indian School in St. Michaels, Arizona.

The program will be run under the auspices of Dartmouth’s Native American Program. The Native American Program (NAP) provides student support services to Native students at Dartmouth.

“We are tremendously excited about this new partnership,” says Reader to Reader founder David Mazor. “Dartmouth’s founding mission in 1769 was to educate Native American students, and I believe that this collaboration will put Dartmouth and Reader to Reader on the cutting edge of 21st century programs developed for Native American high school students.”

Three Kings and Lots of Books

2012-01-09T13:34:00.003-05:00

Jody Spitz, Family Literacy Coordinator for the Holyoke Public Schools in Holyoke, Massachusetts, came by and picked up 300 children’s books to give out at the annual Three Kings Celebration in Holyoke.

“Thank you Reader to Reader for helping to make our event such a success,” Spitz said.

The books included a wide range of children’s books in Spanish as well as English.

Founder of Reader to Reader program in Amherst receives literacy honor

2012-01-05T06:33:00.002-05:00

By Nick Grabbe
Daily Hampshire Gazette

AMHERST - When David Mazor was 13, he found a used paperback by Boston Celtics center Bill Russell. Reading it opened his eyes to both racial discrimination and how to visualize what you want, he said.

"You never know what book someone will discover that will change their life," he said.

Forty years later, Mazor has changed thousands of lives by collecting books and donating them to poor towns and schools, Native American reservations, areas hit by natural disasters and 13 foreign countries. Mazor, who is marking his Reader to Reader program's 10th anniversary this year, was named one of 10 "literacy champions" by the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation in September.

"My guiding principle is that reading is the key that unlocks the door to success, whether it is academic achievement, better job opportunities or the simple joy that comes from discovering that reading is one of life's most enjoyable activities," he said in accepting the award.

Reader to Reader started in 2001 when Mazur woke up in the middle of the night wondering what the poorest town in the U.S. was. He went to his computer and found it was Durant, Miss., and in the morning called the town librarian and found she'd acquired no new books in four years. So he sent her a box of books that had been discarded around Amherst, and found that he enjoyed the experience.

Since then, Reader to Reader has collected and donated about 4.5 million books. It has branched out into numerous programs, encouraging teenage mothers to write, turning Amherst College students into online mentors for low-income children, and even placing books in the waiting rooms of state offices in Roxbury.

On Wednesday, he sent 300 books to Holyoke to be given to children as part of Friday's Three Kings Day celebration. In September, he sent 25,000 books to the public schools of Chicopee, also destined for schools in Springfield, West Springfield and Holyoke. In mid-December, a U-Haul truck left Amherst with 15,000 books, computers and toys for the Navajo Nation, bringing the total sent there this year to 50,000 books.

"We're isolated here, and these books give our students a wonderful window on the world," said Carla Clauschee, a librarian at a high school there.

The Literacy Champion Awards, started in 2003, are designed to identify, recognize and support people making contributions to the advancement of literacy. The award includes a grant of $3,500, which Mazor is using to launch Discover Books, a program for teenage parents in the Springfield schools.

The nine other literacy champions included an English instructor at a jail in Ludlow, a language arts teacher in Boston, a reading specialist at a charter school in Haverhill and a career counselor in Attleboro.

When Mazor began Reader to Reader, he found books at tag sales, library discard piles and the Amherst transfer station. Now he gets new books from publishers like Random House and Scholastic, from Barnes & Noble and from authors.

Stephanie Meyer, whose "Twilight" books have sold more than 100 million copies, found out about Reader to Reader and donated shirts, posters and books that became prizes at Navajo Pine High School in New Mexico. Singer Carly Simon sent 2,000 copies of a children's book she wrote.

Reader to Reader operates out of the Cadigan Center for Religious life at Amherst College, which has donated the basement space to the program. It also has a warehouse for books in Holyoke.

In July, Mazor hired his first full-time employee, Kathyrn Libby, who started volunteering at Reader to Reader on her second day as a student at Amherst College. She is running the mentoring program, which links children from low-income backgrounds with Amherst College students, who read the same books and discuss them online. This coming semester, 60 student mentors have signed up, and more than 250 low-income children have benefited from the program.

The new Springboard Program helps students in the Five Colleges learn skills necessary to lead their own literacy projects. Yet to be launched is Generation W, which will bring together low-income teen-agers and senior citizens.

Reader to Reader has also donated annually about 100 used computers that have been discarded by Amherst College. In August it sent computers to a school in Ghana, and in November it sent computers to libraries in Vermont and New York that had lost theirs in Tropical Storm Irene.

Mazor is mindful of the transition in books from print on paper to pixels on a screen. He's already thinking about the long-term impact on his supply of books when residents of affluent communities switch to e-readers, and the practicality of sending an encyclopedia to Costa Rica on an e-reader without having to pay massive shipping charges.

But he said the book is a technology that's been perfected over the centuries, and there's still something wonderful about holding a book, opening it and turning the pages.

"I spent a lot of time at the Jones Library wandering around randomly, pulling books off shelves," he said. "Libraries let you discover books you didn't know you'd want to read."

Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2011 All rights reserved

It’s a new year! Hold a Reader to Reader book drive!

2012-01-02T16:55:00.002-05:00

Want to help children that need books? Hold a Reader to Reader book drive and help bring thousands of books to kids in low-income communities across the country.

It’s easy!

Just use these handy book drive guidelines book drive guidelines.

Hooray for Margaret Skoog!

2011-12-30T06:49:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-25T09:58:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-23T08:39:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-19T13:37:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-13T08:02:00.006-05:00

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!

2011-12-08T12:42:00.002-05:00

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.”

Giving Out Books at Family Literacy Day

2011-11-28T11:23:00.003-05:00

Kat Libby and the rest of the Reader to Reader team gave out over 600 new children’s books at the Holyoke Children’s Museum for it’s first ever Family Literacy Day.

A crowd of children excitedly gathered around as they picked out the books that caught their eyes.

“The event was a huge success,” said Kat Libby, Reader to Reader’s Director of Special Programs. “There were lots and lots of smiles!”

We were pleased to join the adult literacy and early childhood providers, local businesses and other community-based organizations in the greater Holyoke area that partnered to conduct the event. The activities included free books, hands-on activities for families, carousel rides, take home resources and literacy prizes.

Get an Autographed Copy of The Phantom Tollbooth!

2011-11-22T06:16:00.003-05:00

Here is the perfect holiday gift for you or a friend! Author Norton Juster is signing copies of his children’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth for anyone donating $200 or more to Reader to Reader.

“Reader to Reader is a great charity and I want to do all I can to help them,” says Juster. "I hope you will too."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the beloved children’s classic. The ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth's gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet lovable Humbug, the Mathemagician, and the not-so-wicked "Which," Faintly Macabre, who gives Milo the "impossible" mission of returning two princesses to the Kingdom of Wisdom.

"I read [The Phantom Tollbooth] first when I was 10. I still have the book report I wrote, which began 'This is the best book ever.'"
--Anna Quindlen, The New York Times

Reader to Reader is a nonprofit literacy organization that has donated over $40 million dollars worth of books and computers across the U.S. and in 14 countries.

To get your copy just donate $200 or more on Reader to Reader’s crowdrise page. Please mention “Tollbooth” on the memo line.

Bement Students Collect 2,000 Books!

2011-11-21T07:44:00.001-05:00

A special thank you to the students at the Bement School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, for their book drive that collected over children’s 2,000 books.

Reader to Reader will donate the books to the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona.

The library serves the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation. The books will bolster the library’s children section and will also be used for outreach across the reservation.

“I want to congratulate the children of Bement School for all their hard work,” said Reader to Reader founder David Mazor. “ They did an incredible job of collecting and sorting the books. These books will be enjoyed by so many children on the Navajo Nation.”

Author Donates Book Prize to Reader to Reader!

2011-11-16T09:44:00.005-05:00

Special thank you to author Jeanne Birdsall for the donation to Reader to Reader of her cash prize from her 2011 New England Book Award.

The award was give in honor of The Penderwicks at Point Mouette.

“We are grateful that Jeanne Birdsall has honored us in this way,” said David Mazor, founder of Reader to Reader. “I hope that children everywhere continue to discover her delightful books.”

Reviews of The Penderwicks at Point Mouette have been very positive:

“ If you’ve someone who’d like to be introduced into this world for the first time or someone who’s been reading the books straight through, it makes no difference. Both will enjoy this newest Penderwickian challenge. Both will be intrigued and pleased. Both will love it. You will too for that matter.”
– School Library Journal

El Arco Kids Get Lots of Books

2011-11-14T06:33:00.004-05:00

It's always a fun day at Reader to Reader when groups take a field trip to visit us.

Kids from El Arco Iris, an after school program sponsored by Nueva Esperanza in Holyoke, Massachusetts, came to visit and picked out lots of books to read.

The organization encourages the youth of Holyoke to explore their creativity via after school programs, such as photography courses and tutoring.

Computers on the Way to Hurricane Damaged Library in Upper Jay, NY

2011-11-10T08:28:00.003-05:00

Three Dell Optiplex computers are on their way to the Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, New York.

The library lost their computers when Hurricane Irene hit at the end of August, and Reader to Reader pledged to replace them, as well as provide hundred of replacement children’s books.

Debbie Neil, who lives in Saranac Lake, New York, kindly volunteered to pick-up the computers and transport them back to Upper Jay. She also brought back a large number of books donated by Reader to Reader and the nearby Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

Roger Sutton Receives Norton Juster Award

2011-11-07T06:37:00.005-05:00

Reader to Reader is pleased to announce that the Horn Book editor in chief Roger Sutton is the recipient of the 2011 Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy.

The award is given annually by Reader to Reader to a person who has played a
prominent role in encouraging literacy and reading enjoyment.

The award was created in 2008 and the first recipient was The Phantom Tollbooth author Norton Juster.

The award was renamed in his honor the following year.

Subsequent recipients were authors Jane Yolen in 2009 and Wendell Minor in 2010.

This year's award was presented to Roger Sutton before the hundreds of people attending the opening reception at the 22nd Annual Children's Book Illustration Exhibition.

“We are so pleased to honor Roger Sutton,” Reader to Reader founder David Mazor said. “He has played such an important role in helping people distinguish good children’s literature from bad. It is so important, because young reader’s get hooked on reading when they discover high quality storytelling and exceptional illustration.”

About this year’s recipient:

As the editor in chief of the Horn Book, Roger Sutton is only the seventh editor in chief since the magazine was founded in 1924. The Horn Book Magazine was created to “blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls.” And that is something it has done extraordinarily well. With an MA in library science from the University of Chicago, Sutton worked as a children's librarian for eight years before becoming a full-time book review editor. He has served as a judge for every major children's book award, and frequently teaches and speaks about children's books. His most recent book is A Family of Readers: The Book Lover's Guide to Children's and Young Adult Literature, which he co-edited with Martha Parravano.

Join Us November 6 for an Amazing, Fun, Free Event!

2011-11-04T08:28:00.007-04:00

Join us Sunday, November 6 at the Michelson Galleries in Northampton, MA, as Reader to Reader presents our annual Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy to Roger Sutton, editor of the Horn Book.

The award will presented at the opening reception for the 22nd Annual Children's Book Illustration Exhibition.

This free event features 50 of the world’s most famous illustrators, including Mo Willems, Jane Dyer, Diane DeGroat, Barry Moser and Wendell Minor.

Don’t miss special guest Jules Feiffer on the 50th anniversary of his classic The Phantom Tollbooth.

Reception 4:30-6:30pm.
Ceremony and entertainment begins at 5:30.

R. MICHELSON GALLERIES
132 Main Street
Northampton, MA

Still not convinced? Here's 22 reasons to come to the 22nd Annual Illustration Exhibition.

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Gloom of Night

2011-11-03T07:11:00.003-04:00

All week Reader to Reader’s home at the Cadigan Center has been out of power due to the damaging snowstorm that brought down the electric wires to the building. That hasn’t stopped us from working! Here Bob Grenoble of New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, MA, uses a flashlight to pick out books for his history class.

Reader to Reader Improves the Navajo Nation Library Collection

2011-10-31T12:25:00.006-04:00

While visiting the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico, Reader to Reader founder David Mazor visited the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona.

The library serves the entire 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation, and Reader to Reader’s multi-year book drive has already donated over 45,000 books and 30 computers to improve their collection.

“We are so grateful for all that Reader to Reader has done for us,” says Navajo Nation Library director Irving Nelson. “It is a great partnership. We work together to fill our areas of need, and that has greatly increased our library usage. Thanks to Reader to Reader we replaced the fiction section and greatly boosted our children’s section. They provided tens of thousands of books for all our nonfiction areas, as well.”

"The Navajo Nation Library is such an important resource," says David Mazor, "There are no book stores in the area, so without the library people would have very limited access to books. Irving Nelson does an amazing job of running the library and we are so pleased to be working with him."

Expanding Literacy on the Navajo Nation

2011-10-27T11:11:00.006-04:00

Reader to reader founder David Mazor is spending the week on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico.

The purpose of the trip is to continue to develop the Navajo Mentoring Program, which works with Navajo elementary, middle, and high school students through a special program that links them with college student reading mentors for online book discussions.

The program also includes college advising for the high school students.

The week-long visit includes meetings with teachers, administrators, library officials, and students of all ages. Their insights help Reader to Reader hone our programs to the needs of Navajo students.

In addition to the mentoring program, Reader to Reader has made a commitment to refurbish the libraries at Navajo Elementary School, Navajo Pine Middle School, and St. Michael Indian School.

Over the past decade Reader to Reader has donated over $1,000,000 of books and computers to support literacy across the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation.

(Navajo Elementary principal Peggy Hotchkiss in front of her school in Navajo, New Mexico)

15 Computers for Warren Elementary

2011-10-24T08:03:00.003-04:00

Fifteen computers and over 800 books are heading to the Warren Community Elementary School in West Warren, Massachusetts.

“Thanks to this wonderful donation we will be able to put a computer in each one of our classrooms,” said Ann Marie Lake, reading coach at Warren Community Elementary school. "We are so grateful for all Reader to Reader has done for us."

Reader to Reader’s computer donation program provides refurbished Dell Optiplex GX620s desktop computers with flat screen monitors for use in classrooms, libraries, and for building computer labs in the U.S. and around the world.

Bags of Books!

2011-10-19T07:55:00.002-04:00

Students from the Care Center visited Reader to Reader and had a fun time filling bags full of books for themselves and their children.

Picking out books from our 10,000 book inventory is always a great way to get hooked on reading.

The Care Center is an alternative education program located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for pregnant and parenting teens who have dropped out of high school. We are pleased to support their work by donating books and school supplies, and through their participation in our Athena Interactive literacy Program.

Computers on the Way to Hurricane Damaged Library

2011-10-13T09:30:00.003-04:00

Three desktop computers are on their way to the West Hartford Library in West Hartford, Vermont.

The library sustained major flood damage from Hurricane Irene at the end of August. Reader to Reader pledged to replace their computers through our computer donation program, which provides Dell Optiplex GX620 computers that have been refurbished and are ready to run.

They will be great for library patrons to surf the internet!

David Mazor Honored as Literacy Champion

2011-10-06T17:30:00.004-04:00

Boston -- The Massachusetts Literacy Foundation, in partnership with Verizon’s Check Into Literacy Program, has named David Mazor, the founder of Amherst-based literacy organization Reader to Reader, as one of the 10 recipients of the 2011 Massachusetts Literacy Champion Awards program.

The awards were created in 2003 to identify, publicly recognize and support Massachusetts literacy providers who have shown exceptional commitment and results through their work in literacy education.

“I am honored to accept this award and believe it is an honor that is shared by everyone in our organization,” Mazor said. “”I am so pleased that our work as literacy advocates that create innovative and effective programs has been recognized by the The Massachusetts Literacy Foundation. We look forward to working harder than ever to raise literacy rates in Massachusetts and across the globe.”

Unlike many singular awards programs, the Literacy Champions Awards recognize multiple individuals, practices and programs. Each year, up to ten Literacy Champions are chosen from a competitive nomination pool to represent the diverse fields of literacy education in Massachusetts. They are classroom teachers, administrators and volunteers who work in urban and rural areas throughout Massachusetts. Literacy Champions collaborate throughout the year, serve as ambassadors for The Massachusetts Literacy Foundation and share their work in literacy with peers across the commonwealth.

“The new Literacy Champions will join a network of more than 50 literacy professionals who are among the best practitioners in their field,” said Carol Anne Conroy, president of the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation. “This program enables us not only to recognize the important work of these wonderful people who are dedicated to helping others, but gives us a vehicle to work together to share best practices.”

Award Winners Receive:
- A $2500 grant for program development.
- A $1000 grant for professional development.
- Statewide recognition as a Massachusetts Literacy Champion.
- An opportunity to collaborate as a group and share ideas.

Through its Check Into Literacy program, Verizon gives wireline phone customers the opportunity to donate $1 a month to literacy programs when they pay their Verizon bill. In Massachusetts, proceeds raised through the program are donated to the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation to promote the Literacy Champions’ efforts in local communities. Literacy Champions each receive $3500 in grants to support their work. This year, more than $74,000 was donated to the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation.

“We are proud to partner with the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation to recognize the efforts of literacy professionals across the state,” said Donna Cupelo, region president of Verizon New England. “People in this field work tirelessly to ensure people have the literacy skills they need to meet their education, career and life goals. Thanks to their efforts, we are building stronger communities here in Massachusetts.”

In addition, Massachusetts Literacy Foundation also will use funds for MassLiteracyNetwork.org, a new website that will showcase the Literacy Champions winning practices, including strategies for effective literacy programs. In addition, the work of Literacy Champions will be featured in the Boston Herald’s literacy inserts, Massachusetts Reads and Succeeds.

Bringing Boxes Filled With Books!

2011-09-26T11:49:00.004-04:00

Congratulations to Katie Longo for her very successful book drive for Reader to Reader’s Navajo Nation Library Book Drive.

The book drive benefits the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona. The only public library on the Navajo Nation, the library is the primary source of books for the 300,000 residents of the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation that covers parts of Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

The Cumberland, Maine high school student collected and carefully sorted over 500 books for her community service project. She also drove them down from Maine to our headquarters in Amherst, Massachusetts.

A job well done!

Reader to Reader on TV

2011-09-19T10:39:00.005-04:00

Watch Reader to Reader founder and executive director, David Mazor, as he discusses our diverse range of programs on WWLP-TV's "Mass Appeal".

Click this link to see the segment.

On behalf of the Chicopee Public Schools I would like to thank you!

2011-09-16T13:43:00.001-04:00

Dear Mr. Mazor,

On behalf of the Chicopee Public Schools I would like to thank you and Reader to Reader for the donation of over 25,000 books that were distributed to our students. Each of our 10 elementary Schools, and two middle schools had an opportunity to select books for their students. Books that were distributed to the Elementary Schools will be used for a wide variety of purposes. Many schools will be using multiple copies of books to enhance academic programs. On the first day of school many students will go home with a brand new book! During the holidays many students will also receive the gift of a book, all due to the generous donation made by your organization.

During our Title I Summer School Program, which serves over 1000 students, we hosted several ‘Bingo for Books’ events. This was a fun way to support attendance during our summer program. Students had an opportunity to interact in a social setting, while working on vocabulary activities. Each student that attended this event went home with one – two books. The success of this event can be directly attributed to your organization and making it possible for our students to expand their personal libraries.

Again, on behalf of the Chicopee Public Schools I would like to thank you for the donation you recently made.

Sincerely,

Samuel A. Karlin, Principal
Belcher School
Chicopee, MA

Thank you doesn’t begin to express my extreme gratitude!

2011-09-12T13:11:00.001-04:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

Thank you doesn’t begin to express my extreme gratitude for the beautiful books you sent our library. You are truly a lifeline for us.

Sincerely,

Lisa Gendreau, Librarian
Henry J. Winters Elementary
Pawtucket, RI

Back to School with 25,000 Books!

2011-09-08T09:22:00.003-04:00

Thousands of children in Chicopee and Springfield, Massachusetts went back to school with 25,000 new children’s books.

The book donation was through Reader to Reader’s annual Book Extravaganza, which donates tens of thousands of books each year to schools in the Springfield area.

“There is nothing like owning a new book!” says Reader to Reader executive director, David Mazor. “We are very pleased to give these children something special to start their school year.”

The books are from leading authors, including R.L. Stine, Gary Paulsen, Jenny Dale and scientist Stephen Hawking.

“Reader to Reader has been a generous supporter of the Chicopee School District for many year,” says Belcher Elementary principal, Samuel Karlin. “We can always count on them for thousands of books that enhance our children’s lives and strengthen our programs. The wide variety of titles in this year's donation will mean that there is something for everybody.”

The annual Book Extravaganza was made possible by program sponsors Comcast, Scholastic Inc. and Chicopee Savings Bank. Grant support for this program included the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, and the Xeric Foundation.

Reader to Reader Pledges Computers for Library Damaged by Hurricane Irene

2011-09-05T09:35:00.003-04:00

Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, New York, will be getting 6 computers from Reader to Reader’s computer donation program to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Irene.

The Hurricane caused massive flooding throughout upstate New York and Vermont, and Reader to Reader is donating books and computers to replace those lost in the worst natural disaster since the hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane Irene not only destroyed buildings but also washed out hundreds of roads, cutting communities off and making relief efforts difficult.

Hurricane Irene Book Drive

2011-09-02T07:21:00.007-04:00

Reader to Reader has launched a book drive to help restock the libraries and schools damaged by Hurricane Irene.

Massive flooding in New York State and Vermont destroyed all or part of the collections at a number of libraries, including the children’s collections at the Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, New York, and the West Hartford Public Library in West Hartford, Vermont. The Schoharie Free Library in Schoharie, New York lost everything but their nonfiction. The list is growing as libraries assess the damage from the worst hurricane to hit the region since 1938.

Reader to Reader’s past relief work includes over 2 million books donated to schools and libraries damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Books being collected for the Hurricane Irene book drive should in new or like-new condition.

Send to:

Reader to Reader
Hurricane Irene Book Drive
38 Woodside Avenue
Amherst, MA 01002

We will post information about other damaged libraries as we get it.

New Mexico Students Go Back to School With 13,000 New Children's Books

2011-09-01T09:09:00.002-04:00

School children attending schools in the Gallup-McKinley County school district in New Mexico got a boost as they went back to school. Reader to Reader has donated 13,000 new children’s books to bolster the resources of area schools from leading authors, including R.L. Stine, Gary Paulsen, Jenny Dale and scientist Stephen Hawking.

The book donation was made possible through the generous support of Scholastic, Inc.’s ClassroomsCare program.

The donation brought an estimated $150,000 in new books for all grades from kindergarten to grade twelve.

“These books are going to schools in one of the poorest district in the country,” notes Reader to Reader executive director, David Mazor. “Most of the students that attend these schools are Navajo and this donation is part of our long-term commitment to boosting the reading level for Native-American students, which is among the nation’s lowest.”

Poetry Spoken Here

2011-08-29T06:51:00.005-04:00

The teen mothers in the Athena Interactive Literacy Program had an exciting day at Northfire Studio recording their spoken word poetry.

“Taking the poetry out of the classroom and into a recording studio really brings the poetry to life for them,” said Reader to Reader executive director David Mazor.

“They have seen recording studios on MTV, so linking the poetry to the high-tech world of a professional studio creates a lot of excitement.”

Working with professional sound engineer Garrett Sawyer, the students not only recorded their poetry, but also got to see first-hand how sounds can be manipulated and edited to make a unique aural document.

In addition to the poetry, reggae music and beatboxing (a form of vocal percussion) filled the air.

Garrett Sawyer crafted a beatboxed soundtrack (performed by Reader to Reader’s own Kat Libby) to underscore the poetry. The energetic soundtrack made all the clearer the link between spoken word poetry and rap music.

2011 marks the third time Northfire Studio has hosted students in a Reader to Reader Program

“Northfire Studio is a world-class audio production facility that has produced a number of gold records, so we are extremely grateful for their donation of recording time for the Athena,” notes David Mazor. “This is their second year as part of the Athena Program and they also gave our students in the Navajo Mentoring Program an amazing experience when they visited in 2008.”

The week-long Athena Interactive Literacy Program brings together an exciting team of educators, writers, and artists, including noted writing teacher Peter Elbow, illustrious author Norton Juster, and Chef Bill Collins, a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts with over 15 years professional experience, including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston. The students spend mornings exploring reading and writing in a variety of interesting settings, pick out hundreds of books for themselves and their children, develop family literacy materials, and spend their afternoons learning to cook healthy food for themselves and their children.

The program is a partnership between Reader to Reader and the Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Funding is provided by a grant from PeoplesBank and a generous donation from Mary Ann Cofrin.

Athena Students Get Lots and Lots of Books!

2011-08-26T14:28:00.006-04:00

Everyday the teen mothers participating in the Athena Interactive Literacy Program go home with lots of books for themselves and their children.

“This program gets so many books into the community,” says the Care Center’s education director, Ana Rodriguez, who notes that these students come from homes in Holyoke and Springfield that are often devoid of books.

Each day the participating teen mothers spend time going through Reader to Reader’s inventory of 10,000 books, picking out titles that intrigue them. By the end of the week the mothers have taken home hundreds books that they not only read themselves and to their children, but also share with friends and family.

Launched in 2010, the Athena Interactive Literacy Program features a week-long workshop that works with pregnant and parenting teens in order to build their reading and writing skills, and to explore healthy eating and cooking.

The program is a partnership between Reader to Reader and The Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Funding is provided by a grant from PeoplesBank and a generous donation from Mary Ann Cofrin.

Chef Bill Helps Athena Students Explore the World of Healthy Cooking

2011-08-25T07:32:00.004-04:00

Food and fun where on the menu as Chef Bill Collins helped the teen mothers attending Reader to Reader’s Athena Interactive Literacy Program explore healthy eating and cooking.

The students spend two hours each day learning cooking techniques ranging from omelets and French toast to low-fat versions of Chicken Alfredo.

“We are so grateful to have Chef Bill, says Reader to Reader executive director David Mazor. “Bill is key to the Athena Program’s success. He’s both an educator and an entertainer. He brings such a fun energy to each lesson and the students really connect with him, which makes more open for all the writing exercises we do all week.”

Chef Bill Collins is a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts with over 15 years professional experience, including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston

Launched in 2010, the Athena Interactive Literacy Program features a week-long workshop that works with pregnant and parenting teens in order to build their reading and writing skills, and to explore healthy eating and cooking.

The program is a partnership between Reader to Reader and The Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Funding is provided by a grant from PeoplesBank and a generous donation from Mary Ann Cofrin.

Athena Mothers Explore Writing With Peter Elbow

2011-08-23T22:18:00.006-04:00

Reader to Reader’s Athena Interactive Literacy Program kicked off its week-long workshop with a writing seminar from renowned writing teacher Peter Elbow. The author of Writing Without Teachers and Writing With Power, Elbow worked with the teen mothers attending the program on how to free up the writing process.

Launched in 2010, the Athena Interactive Literacy Program features a week-long workshop that works with pregnant and parenting teens in order to build their reading and writing skills, and to explore healthy eating and cooking. The program is a partnership between Reader to Reader and The Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

The young mothers in the program currently attend The Care Center where they are working on getting their G.E.D.s so they can attend college. Athena supplements their studies, giving them a dynamic week of exploration that moves beyond test taking to help them discover the joy of being a student.

The program brings together an exciting team of educators, writers, and artists, including noted writing teacher Peter Elbow, illustrious author Norton Juster, and Chef Bill Collins, a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts with over 15 years professional experience, including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston. The students spend mornings exploring reading and writing in a variety of interesting settings, including recording poetry at a professional recording studio, and afternoons are dedicated to learning to cook healthy food for themselves and their children.

Funding is provided by a grant from PeoplesBank and a generous donation from Mary Ann Cofrin.

Another School Joins Ghana Project

2011-08-15T13:29:00.001-04:00

The Akim Awisa Junior Secondary School in Akim Awisa, Ghana, has joined Reader to Reader’s Ghana Project. The school will receive books and computers to set-up a computer lab.

The Ghana Project also serves the Eno Boanimah Memorial Academy, Kasoa, Ghana, and Akim Oda Secondary School, Akim Oda, Ghana.

Target Grant Funds Discover Books Program

2011-08-09T07:03:00.002-04:00

A big thank you to Target for grant funding of Reader to Reader’s new Discover Books Program.

Launching this fall, the Discover Books Program helps children discover the joy of books through twice-monthly family reading groups that work with teen mothers and their children. The groups help mothers learn the family literacy essentials necessary for their children to go to kindergarten with well-developed pre-literacy and early literacy skills, and allow young children to explore the world of books and develop essential pre-reading skills. In addition to receiving book donations, the mothers and children engage in other activities, such as modeling reading behavior, board book making, letter and number games, and parent and child story creation that add a multi-sensory experience to boost their literacy skills development.

17 Computers for Ghana

2011-08-05T08:06:00.001-04:00

A truckload of 17 Dell Optiplex GX620 computers with flat-screen monitors will be heading to Ghana to build computer labs at the Eno Boanimah Memorial Academy, Kasoa, Ghana, and Akim Oda Secondary School, Akim Oda.

Reader to Reader’s computer donation program is helping both schools set up resource centers which includes libraries and computer labs.

An Albanian Orphanage Gets a Reading Space

2011-08-02T09:36:00.004-04:00

(Reader to Reader’s Kathryn Libby, who received one of the Davis Foundation’s prestigious 100 Projects for Peace grants, reports on her work building a fully stocked library space at an orphanage in Albania.)

After a long trip across the Atlantic Ocean, I have finally arrived in Tirana, the capital of Albania. The books and games have survived their long trip in our luggage and are soon to be on their way to the Zyber Hallulli Children’s Home, the orphanage that Iris Aliaj and I will be working with this month.

Reading is not a favored activity among most people here in Albania; although book vendors lay out dozens of aging, yellowed texts there are few buyers, and even fewer stores for new books. Our goal is to get the children at the orphanage interested in reading, and in the wonderful healing (and of course,escapist!) power of books. 36 children are housed in the orphanage; all are attending school, but we’ve been granted their evening time to read Harry Potter 7 aloud and encourage reading in the older kids.

As you can see, we also take some time to play games with the younger kids: Tana likes to make up her own rules. She graciously let me win half of the games we played.

There couldn’t be a greater need for books here: we visited the Children’s Home for the first time this weekend and were shocked at what we found. Although the library houses a fair number of books, nearly all of them are over 50 years old and in extremely poor condition. I picked a few up, and my fingers turned black! The children told us even mice would be ashamed to read these books.

To top it off, each child is only permitted to check out one book. As someone who often had ten books at a time out of my public library growing up, this seems too much to bear. We are working on getting a more lenient policy in the library.

One child, Mario, trades vocabulary with me like kids in the 90s traded Pokemon cards. He’s been my major source of new words in Albanian, and I think my love of reading is rubbing off on him. Nje Qershorin (June 1st) is Children’s Day here in Albania, and Iris and I attended the celebration at the orphanage. You can see little Çeleste dancing so beautifully in this picture! Each child received a book of their own from us. I chose the children’s version of Frankenstein for Mario, which was no small read, yet he finished it in just one day! We took him to a nearby bookstore and he picked out the first book of both the Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter series. I am so delighted that at least one boy has really come to love reading.

There is so much potential for growth here, and I am delighted to be making it happen. More news to come as the progress continues!

Best,
Kat

Book donation enriches tribal library

2011-07-29T07:33:00.001-04:00

By Lemanuel Loley
Navajo Times

A truckload of 15,000 books worth $100,000 arrived at the Navajo Nation Library on Monday morning.

The books were donated by Reader to Reader, a nonprofit literacy organization based in Amherst, Mass., that builds library and school resources across the United States and in 13 countries.

The load was personally delivered by Irving Nelson, library director, and assistant Everett Etsitty, who flew to Massachusetts on July 11 and spent the next day loading a 26-foot rental truck to carry the donation back to Arizona.

The drive back took four days, with Nelson and Etsitty alternating shifts on three 18-hour days and the final 12-hour drive.

It was the third time Nelson has made such a haul. The first donation, totaling 15,000 books, came in November 2009 and was followed by another 15,000 in July 2010. The new shipment brings the number of donated inventory to 45,000, valued at half a million dollars.

This brings the total number of volumes in the 14-year-old Navajo Nation Library to more than 75,000, including an oral history section that can be accessed by request.

The new shipment of books and DVDs includes a special collection of 16 boxes of Native American books and papers donated by two-time National Book Award winner Peter Matthiessen, who wrote "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse."

The donation also contains the works of many highly regarded children's authors including Jane Yolen, Mo Willems, Norton Juster, Alice Schertle and Susan Pearson.

The latest shipment of books was chosen from a broad assortment of 200,000 books. Nelson worked closely with David Mazor, founder of Reader to Reader, to decide what books were to be donated. The collection mainly is made up of Native American literature including Native American history, fiction and poetry.

Mazor discovered the tribal library by accident during a trip to visit reservation school libraries in spring 2009. While visiting the Navajo Nation Museum, Mazor discovered that it also housed the tribe's central library.

Mazor met with Nelson and they discussed the library's need for books.

"I could see how Irving cared so passionately about the library," Mazor said in a telephone interview.

He learned that the tribal library serves 300,000 people a year and has limited funds to expand its offerings.

So Mazor committed his organization to helping out, and is doing so in a big way. Reader to Reader has pledged to donate 100,000 books in a multi-year book drive.

With the most recent donation, it is almost half way to that goal.

Previous Reader to Reader donations have already had a tremendous impact on the library, Nelson said. When the library first opened in 1997, it had 300 visitors a year and now averages 300 a day, he said.

"We replaced our entire fiction section thanks to Reader to Reader," notes Nelson.

The children's section checks out 300 books a day.

"We look forward to continue working with Reader to Reader," Nelson said.

"Everybody who enjoys reading will discover something they're interested in," Mazor said. "Even people who don't like to read could bring their kids to the library."

Read While U Wait Joins Reader to Reader

2011-07-27T07:33:00.005-04:00

Reader to Reader is proud to announce the acquisition of the Read While U Wait Room project at the Department of Transitional Assistance and Dept. of Housing & Community Development in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

The project will continue to be directed by Lisa Heyison, who has run the project for the last eleven years.

Read While U Wait provides books for all ages from newborn through high school.

The children and parents who come for support and assistance at the Department of Transitional Assistance in Roxbury are always thrilled when they receive a book as wait times can be anywhere from 1 to 6 hours. In the “Read While U Wait” Room children can play and be read to while they wait with their parents for either Emergency Housing or financial assistance for food.

The Room was originally set up by Horizons for Homeless Children, ReadBoston, and Massachusetts Literacy Coalition with lots of support by the Department of Transitional Assistance.

“I am so thrilled that Reader to Reader has adopted this project,” says Lisa Heyison. “They have already donated hundreds of wonderful children’s books that the children will love to read.”

“This is an important project and we look forward to providing a wealth of support that will include book donations, grant writing and fundraising,” says Reader to Reader executive director David Mazor. “I applaud Lisa for the tremendous dedication she has shown to making this room a great resource for over a decade. I am so glad to welcome her to our team.”

The books in the Read While U Wait Room also allow children to start their own libraries whether they are heading to a homeless shelter or to their own homes. Quite often, these children do not have any books they can call their own.

Computers on the Way to Kosovo

2011-07-21T09:50:00.002-04:00

Reader to Reader has donated five computers to boost the resources at the Gjergj Fishta School in Pristina, Kosovo.

The computer donation is part of an ongoing project to equip the Fisnik Matoshi Library in order to create a library space where students feel welcome and are inspired to read. The goal is to fill the library with books in both Albanian and English, and provide the students with computers, English-language software, and school supplies.

“We are so grateful to Reader to Reader for making it possible for the students of Gjergj Fishta School to have computers in their library.” Says Atdhe Matoshi.

Reader to Reader makes another massive donation of books to Navajo Nation

2011-07-15T08:54:00.002-04:00

By Nick Grabbe
Daily Hampshire Gazette

AMHERST - A truck loaded with 15,000 donated books left Amherst Tuesday and is expected to arrive at the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Ariz., this Friday.

The books were collected by Reader to Reader, an Amherst organization that since 2002 has distributed at no cost an estimated 4.5 million volumes in the U.S. and 13 countries.

Speaking by phone from the road in southern Illinois Thursday, Library Director Irving Nelson said he and employee Everett Tsosie flew to Massachusetts on Monday and rented a 26-foot truck. This is the third truckload of 15,000 books that they have driven cross-country after David Mazor, the Reader to Reader executive director, collected them, he said.

"David is a tremendously important person to the Navajo Nation," he said. "We wouldn't be able to get these quality books from any other source."

The library, which is near the New Mexico border, serves a population of 300,000 people spread out over 26,000 square miles in three states, Nelson said. The library's budget goes almost exclusively to staff, and includes just $6,000 a year to buy books, he said.

Each trip to Amherst and back costs about $4,000, but the library is able to acquire high-quality books worth about $100,000 at no charge, Nelson said. The library has replaced its entire fiction collection with books from Reader to Reader, and has donated duplicate copies to boys and girls clubs and adult and youth detention centers in the Navajo Nation, he said.

Mazor made a special effort to find books that library users had requested: children's books, ones about sports, and novels by Stephen King. In addition, author and National Book Award winner Peter Matthiessen, who knows one of Reader to Reader's board members, donated about 1,500 of his own books about Native American history and culture. They were included in this week's shipment.

Reader to Reader operates out of Amherst College's Cadigan Center on Woodside Avenue in Amherst. The organization stores about 10,000 books at a time there, and often gets walk-in donations, Mazor said.

Mazor and his volunteers also acquire books by scanning sales at homes and libraries, and increasingly they are working with major publishers such as Random House to acquire new copies, he said. Reader to Reader also gets donated books from organizations like Mystery Writers of America, he said.

Reader to Reader donated more than a million books to schools and libraries in New Orleans in response to Hurricane Katrina. Last September, it donated $50,000 worth of books to a school library in Shiprock, N.M., that was destroyed in a suspicious fire.

The organization has expanded beyond the U.S. borders and has donated books in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, India, Kosovo, Kenya, Ghana and other countries, Mazor said. It is interested in locating books in Creole for shipment to Haiti, he said.

He's also looking for history books, children's books, and volumes on health that are less than five years old, he said. He's a stickler for books in excellent condition.

For the shipment to the Navajo Nation, Reader to Reader went through 200,000 donated books before deciding on 15,000. It hopes to make another donation of 15,000 books in October and has pledged to donate a total of 100,000, Mazor said,

"David goes through every book to select books for this library," said Nelson. "And he's been to Window Rock several times, and recognizes the books in the library when he comes."

Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2011 All rights reserved

Dreams of School Become Possible

2011-07-11T08:44:00.004-04:00

Ever since the devastating 7.0 M earthquake struck Haiti on January of 2010 the children living in the tent city in the community of Meyotte have been patiently waiting for the chance to go to school.

This fall, thanks to your support, Reader to Reader’s Hope of Haiti project is sponsoring 20 children to attend school. The children will attend the Lekol Fraternite Social in Pernier and Lekol Centre Technic in Meyotte. Both are primary schools in Port Au Prince area.

Although one year of school costs only $150, most parents are unable to pay, leaving their children uneducated only for a lack of money.

Haeinn Woo, Hope of Haiti’s founder and director (and recent Mount Holyoke graduate,) says “Haiti is definitely changing for the better but there is still so much work to improve the education system in terms of access and quality. I learned how challenging it is to form a good relationship across class and cultures However, we are building trust and experience and learning much as we work together and take small steps forwards. The children in school uniforms are the greatest pride and symbol of hope to the Haitian families.“

Haeinn’s visits to Haiti this January and again this June to collaborate with the Haitian grassroots organization OFPADAH have been the driving force behind the project, and she spent her final semester in college constantly fundraising to get the funds to support these children in their desire for education.

This fall, thanks to Haeinn and Hope of Haiti, 20 students will receive the gift of learning. Consider joining us in supporting their education: online donations are accepted at www.crowdrise.com/reader2reader.

Costa Rica Library Has New Home

2011-07-05T09:35:00.005-04:00

(Reader to Reader's Beyond el Campo project in Costa Rica is hard at work expanding the library they built in the coffee farming village of Santa Cruz. Here is the most recent report)

Espero que toda vaya bien en los Estados Unidos-- I hope that all is going well in the States! Things are going great in Costa Rica. We officially have a new space for the library and the language school for visiting English-speaking college students learning Spanish.

The new building was donated by the Women’s Council in Santa Cruz. The main room is at least twice the size of the previous library and there are two additional rooms attached that will act as classroom space for the language school.

Saturday we began work on the new library space by assembling a new set of shelves, varnishing wood and painting the shelf frames. Monday we will begin painting all of the walls of the new building and I hope to do a small mural. Our language classes will begin on Tuesday and at least the first week will be between 3 and 4 hours a day.

Once the library is painted, we will move all the books over from the old library and create a complete electronic catalog of the books in the library. That way we will better know the type of books the library needs in the future and can prevent repeating copies of books the library already has.

Once the new library is up and running we will be doing some activities out of the new space including reading workshops for mothers, children, and other groups. We will also be focusing our volunteering on a partnership with the local elementary school where we will be doing English classes and nutrition classes.

Sinceramente,

Mari Crook
Reader to Reader Volunteer

500 Books Wow!

2011-06-28T10:17:00.003-04:00

(Feedback from school children in Detroit)

“Thank you for the book. That is some good book.” –Elijah

“I’m a bookworm. 500 books, wow! Thanks I can’t wait to read it. I love to read! Thanks for give us all of the books. I love the books.” –Janelle

“Thank you Reader to Reader for the books! They will take me to college.” –Elivana

“I love that you send people books and you are nice. I love books. Thanks. P.S. You are making me smarter!” –A’Niya

15,000 More Books for the Navajo Nation Library

2011-06-22T08:10:00.001-04:00

Reader to Reader volunteer Maypaz Goldstein and summer intern Emily Norman stand next to the latest batch of books for the Navajo Nation Library Book Drive.

The book drive has collected 15,000 books this year for all ages and brings the total collected for the Navajo Nation Library to date to 45,000 books.

The Navajo Nation Library Book Drive is collecting 100,000 books and 100 computers for the Navajo Nation Library. The Navajo Nation Library serves the 27,000 sq. mile Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Amidst Tragedy, A Helping Book

2011-06-17T10:20:00.004-04:00

Dear Mr. Mazor and Reader to Reader,

On June 1, 2011 Monson was devastated by an F-3 tornado that not only destroyed much of Main Street center, but many homes and community streets. Many of our schools’ students and families have been displaced due to their homes being destroyed or damaged.

Losing everything they have, they are living in a variety of settings as they pick up the pieces and start to rebuild.

Reader to Reader has graciously donated hundreds of books to not only the elementary and middle school libraries, but also has provided many books to those students who had lost all their books due to the effects of the tornado. These books will give them the opportunity to take a little time out and get “lost” in an out-of-this-world fantasy, a thrilling adventure or even a riveting mystery.

There is a need in Monson and Reader to Reader offered a helping “book."

Sincerely,

Cheryl A. Clarke
Principal
Granite Valley Middle School
Monson, Massachusetts

Care Center Students Visit and Get Lots of Books

2011-06-07T10:25:00.005-04:00

Teen mothers taking the Humanities 108 class at The Care Center in Holyoke, MA, celebrated their completion of the course with a visit to Reader to Reader to pick out lots of books for themselves and their children. The young women filled bag after bag with a wide variety of books.

Dear Reader to Reader,

THANK YOU so much for our fabulous visit yesterday to Reader to Reader. The girls had a great time exploring your shelves and came away with armfuls of books. It was wonderful to see them so excited and full of joy about their finds! You made five young women (and their children) very happy.

Thanks, as always, for your support of The Care Center and of Humanities 108 in particular.

Yours,
Anita Gallers
The Care Center
Holyoke, MA

Podcasts for Peace to Empower Youth in Nicaragua

2011-06-01T07:53:00.004-04:00

Who could be more powerless than the children living at the municipal dump in Managua, Nicaragua?

One young college graduate has a plan to make their voices heard.

Reader to Reader is proud to support the Podcasts for Peace project, a recipient of the prestigious 100 Projects for Peace funding. The project received a grant of $10,000 from the Davis UWC Scholars Program to create a radio and digital storytelling program for youth who live in and around the municipal dump in Managua, Nicaragua.

Beginning June 2011, the program will teach media literacy and empower disadvantaged youth to tell their stories digitally, from brainstorm to final edit. By sharing personal and collective stories, they will foster dialogue about critical issues in their community.

The central component of Podcasts for Peace is its Youth Media Program, which promotes media literacy and production skills, social justice values, community connections, and leadership. Supported by local community leaders and volunteers from the United States, youth participants produce their own digital stories and radio diaries, learning hands-on skills in audio-visual technology, interview and narrative techniques, and digital editing.

Podcasts for Peace staff provide two hours of daily instruction and personalized coaching four days per week, in addition to weekly workshops led by guest instructors. Participants are encouraged to exchange feedback with their peers as they develop their own projects from brainstorm to final edit. Completed projects are screened at community meetings and posted on this the Podcast for Peace website podcastsforpeace.weebly.com to support broader conversations about the issues they raise.

The project is the inspiration of Mika Kie Weissbuch, a recent graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Mika spent a semester abroad in Nicaragua researching privatization and the nonprofit culture in and around the municipal dump in Acahualinca, Managua. She worked with local community leaders in Acahualinca, many of whom are now involved with Podcasts for Peace. She and Yamileth Pérez developed a vision of empowering youth through the digital storytelling process. The Davis Project for Peace award allowed the vision to become reality as Podcasts for Peace. Mika received training in digital storytelling at the Center for Digital Storytelling and from NPR reporter, Nancy Eve Cohen.

Reader to Reader is helping Podcasts for Peace with their fundraising, as their budget exceeds the $10,000 grant, and is donating books and computers to boost their resources.

Bringing Hope to a Classroom Devoid of Books

2011-05-24T09:06:00.006-04:00

Rebecca Javadi, a Teach for America volunteer who is teaching in inner-city Detroit at Marvin L. Winans Academy of Performing Arts, visited Reader to Reader and picked out hundreds of books for her first grade class. She spoke about the challenge of sparking an interest in reading when she faced a complete absence of resources.

“When I walked into my classroom for the first time there wasn’t a single book, says Rebecca Javadi. “I have collected a few books throughout the year for the class. With those books my students have created a reading club during lunch. Receiving these books from Reader to Reader is going to help my students expand their imagination and joy of reading.”

Knowing the impact the books would have on her students literally gave her happy tears of joy.

“The is an amazing, amazing place!" she said, her arms full of books. "Thank you for all you do. This will mean so much to them. I can’t wait to share these books with all my students!”

Athena Program Set for 2nd Summer

2011-05-19T11:55:00.003-04:00

When you think of why you love reading, I bet you think of times you spent with someone you love. A parent, a sibling, a special teacher; whoever it is, I guarantee that your love of reading comes from the time you shared with that person. That’s why reading clubs are so successful!

Last summer, Reader to Reader decided to bring that same experience to teen moms and their children, two groups that are at high risk of low literacy and academicfailure.

This August, the Athena Interactive Literacy Program will again feature a week-long workshop that works with pregnant and parenting teens in order to build their reading and writing skills, and to explore healthy eating and cooking. The young mothers in the program currently attend The Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where they are working on getting their G.E.D.s so they can attend college. Athena supplements their studies, giving them a dynamic week of exploration that moves beyond test taking to help them discover the joy of being a student.

The program brings together an exciting team of educators, writers, and artists, including noted writing teacher Peter Elbow, illustrious author Norton Juster, and Chef Bill Collins, a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts with over 15 years professional experience, including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston. The students spend mornings exploring reading and writing in a variety of interesting settings, including recording poetry at a professional recording studio, and
afternoons are dedicated to learning to cook healthy food for themselves and their children.

All activities strongly emphasize family literacy. To engage both mother and child in literacy, art teacher Julie Zuchman (pictured below) gave a wonderful class in board book making so that the young mothers can share a handmade book with their children. One mother created a book to chronicle the family’s journey to their new home in Florida that next week. Another said “I read to [my son] every night, definitely, it’s important.” Executive Director David Mazor says, “When they sit and read a book to their child, that child will want to hold the book themselves.” The mothers are encouraged to use their creative writing skills to create a world of
possibility for their children, even from the cradle.

These young women are accomplishing so much with their lives: “I’m young, I’m still going to school, and I gotta keep my head up.” The Athena Interactive Literacy Program strives to give these moms a leg up in their own education and health, and the skills they need to give their kids the same opportunity.

Two Authors Make Generous Donation

2011-05-10T11:10:00.002-04:00

Authors Alice Schertle and Susan Pearson pose with more than $5,000 worth of their hard cover children’s books they donated to Reader to Reader. The books will benefit children across the United States.

We will be including a large number of their titles in our next shipment to the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona. The books will be used in the library's children's room and for outreach across the 27,000 sq. mile Navajo Nation.

Vampires Come to Holyoke

2011-05-03T10:41:00.003-04:00

Holyoke High School librarian, Ellen Stein, shows a copy of Vampire Diaries, part of a recent young adult vampire books delivery Reader to Reader made this week.

“The students will love these!” says Ellen Stein. “We look forward to all your deliveries and new young adult books really spark their interest.”

Mesa Library Rises from the Ashes

2011-04-21T18:30:00.024-04:00

We are so pleased to have played a role in restocking Mesa Elementary’s library after it was destroyed by arson in September 2010.

Some 20,000 books, as well as their computers, furniture and supplies were all lost.

Over the last five months we shipped thousands of new and used children's books, including books generously donated by authors Jane Yolen, Mo Willems and Norton Juster, and purchased Navajo-English children’s books that were specifically requested by the school librarian.

The school in Farmington, New Mexico recently celebrated the opening of its new library with a visit from children’s book authors Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, the authors of the popular "Magic Tree House" series. They personally donated 500 copies of their books.

Here is a note from Mesa's principal.

Hi Mr. Mazor,

Here are just two pictures of our new library. It is beautiful with all the new books. Our librarian hosted a recent Family Literacy Night. Great things are happening here at Mesa. Thank you again for all you've done. We are truly blessed because of friends like you.

With Respect,

Pandora Mike
Principal
Mesa Elementary, Farmington, NM

Thanks to the efforts of a number of organizations and individuals, Mesa’s library is now filled with 11,000 new books and offers all its students an inviting room filled with wonder, ready to ignite the imagination.

Books Bring Smiles

2011-04-19T17:24:00.004-04:00

The children at Belcher Elementary in Chicopee, MA, enjoyed their new children’s books.

So did their librarian!

Bound for Kosovo

2011-04-12T06:50:00.002-04:00

Reader to Reader’s student worker Anna Quan helps load computers bound for the Fisnik Matoshi Library in Pristina, Kosovo.

The project helps the the Gjergj Fishta School in Pristina create a library space where students feel welcome and are inspired to read. The goal is to fill the library with books in both Albanian and English, and provide the students with computers, English-language software, and school supplies.

A Light We Can Count On

2011-04-07T08:24:00.002-04:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

With all the pressure on teachers from cuts in budgets, your box of Twilight prizes was a very important boost here. It really means a lot to know Reader to Reader supports this school. Teachers are using Reader to Reader mentors daily. And, without prompting, all English teachers give your program credit for raising our reading scores on state tests. Thank you for your work. Most of all, thank you for sticking by us for all these years. The future for teaching seems bleak, but your donations and your positive influence are a light we can count on.

Thank you,

Carla Clauschee
Librarian
Navajo Pine High School
Navajo, NM

Books for Bingo!

2011-03-30T06:23:00.001-04:00

Dear David:

I want to again thank you and Reader to Reader for your organization's continued support of Memorial Elementary School. I truly appreciate the generous donation of new and gently used books for our school. These books will be used as prizes for our Bingo for Books event. This event is one in a series of events that Memorial Elementary School conducts in March when we celebrate the joy of reading.

I look forward to Reader to Reader’s continued support in the future. Thank you for being such a wonderful partner in education with Memorial Elementary School.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey P. Udall
Principal
Memorial Elementary School
West Springfield, MA

Haiti School Plans Unveiled

2011-03-23T16:39:00.006-04:00

Architects Andy Grogan and Aelan Tierney of Kuhn Riddle Architects show their drawings to Hope of Haiti project director, Haeinn Woo, for the modular classrooms which will form the school to be built for the children living in the tent city in Petionville, Haiti.
None of the children living in the tent city currently attend school. And when plans for the school were announced more than 200 children’s names were placed on a waiting list the first day.

The cinder block stand-alone classrooms can be built individually and clustered together to form the school.

Each classroom will cost roughly $6,500 including the land and Reader to Reader is fundraising to buy the building materials with the goal of erecting the first several classrooms this summer, so that some of the children can start school in October.

We are grateful to Kuhn Riddle Architects for the generous donation of their architectural services.

Reader to Reader's First Computer Lab Built in Ghana Opens

2011-03-11T09:37:00.007-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

The computers and the additional books have arrived in Ghana. The computers have been set up in the computer lab, and the kids are already learning how to use them. The principal has sent pictures of the kids working with them. We are all very much appreciative.

Thanks,

Robert Baafi
On behalf of Eno Boanimah Memorial Academy
Kasoa, Ghana

Reader to Reader is pleased to assist Eno Boanimah Memorial Academy, Kasoa, Ghana, and Akim Oda Secondary School, Akim Oda, Ghana set up resource centers that include libraries and computer labs.

Thousands of Books for Navajo Elementary

2011-03-02T10:48:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to the 5th graders of Cedar Grove-Belgium Schools in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin for their Reader to Reader book drive, the Library of Love project. Even in these tough times, the community was able to gather a lot of donations.

The students collected 2,371 children’s books which are being shipped to Navajo Pine Elementary School in Navajo, New Mexico.

“The elementary school is very excited about getting so many books,” reports Navajo Pine High School’s librarian, Carla Clauschee, who served as the liaison for the shipment.

Win a Signed Guitar from Band From TV!

2011-02-24T12:55:00.004-05:00

TV Stars Band Together to Help Reader to Reader!

You can win a signed half-size guitar from Band From TV and help Reader to Reader's projects in Nigeria, Dominican Republic and India.

Band from TV is made up of TV stars that donate the funds from their gigs to charity. The band members signed the guitar, which is being raffled by Reader to Reader.

The guitar is signed by the Band From TV lineup, which includes a powerhouse of well-known and acclaimed actors including: Hugh Laurie who stars in "House"; Greg Grunberg, a veteran of shows such as "Alias" and "Felicity" as well as the NBC hit "Heroes"; James Denton, currently starring in the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives"; Bob Guiney, who appeared on "The Bachelor" and on TLC's "Date My House"; Jesse Spencer, currently starring in the FOX hit "House"; Adrian Pasdar, from "Heroes" and "Desperate Housewives"; and rounding out the band are accomplished musicians Chris Kelley (Music Director), Barry Sarna (Eagles), David Leach (Ben Harper), Chris Mostert (Eagles) and child-star turned bass player Brad Savage.

Buy Raffle Tickets online (please mention Band From TV). Tickets are one for $2, three for $5. Don't delay. The drawing is March 5!

I will be back exploring your shelves again!

2011-02-17T15:13:00.004-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

Thank you SO much again for all the fabulous books. Humanities 108 is all set
for this year, thanks to your staff. On behalf of the students who will
be taking the class--and also on behalf of my GED students and Tzivia's poetry
students--we are so grateful for all your help getting us the books we need and
then some. Rest assured I will be back exploring your shelves again!

Yours,

Anita Gallers
The Care Center
Holyoke, MA

Computers for Trinidad & Tobago

2011-02-14T06:56:00.002-05:00

Sharon Spencer picks up a load of computers for the Growing Leaders Leadership Program, which is working to inspire the next generation of young leaders in Trinidad and Tobago. Reader to Reader is donating computers so they can put them in over 60 schools.

Reader to Reader’s Computer Donation Program donates refurbished Dell Optiplex GX 270 Pentium 4 computers with flat screen monitors. The computers are donated and refurbished by Amherst College and have been serviced by their IT department to be completely ready to run right out of the box.

Reader to Reader is an Inspiring Organization

2011-02-08T07:02:00.002-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

My many thanks and great appreciation for all of the high quality books donated to the Samuel Bowles School and the Mary O. Pottenger School through the years.

I want to acknowledge the kindness, generosity and hard work that drives Reader to Reader to promote reading by providing great books to libraries in need. Reader to Reader is an inspiring organization that deserves to be recognized for all the good you do in providing books to encourage literacy!

Again, my heartfelt thanks for the many, many boxes of books that were delivered to both schools I service. I can honestly tell you that the donations of books has had a very positive impact on students’ reading!

Thanks again!

Donna McArdle
Librarian
Samuel Bowles School
Mary O. Pottenger School
Springfield, MA

Chef Bill to Cook to Aid Haiti

2011-02-04T07:53:00.003-05:00

Friday, February 04, 2011
By DIANE LEDERMAN
dlederman@repub.com

AMHERST - Chef Bill Collins, known as Chef Bill, is hoping to tantalize lovers this Valentine's Day with a romantic dinner for two that will spread the love to Haiti.

Collins is auctioning off a meal to be chosen by the winner and prepared in the winner's home Feb. 14 to benefit Reader to Reader's Hope of Haiti project build a school. Reader to Reader is working with Mount Holyoke College senior Haeinn Woo on the project.

Woo said they need to raise at least $3,000 to get the project going. They want to build the school in Meyotte, a small village in the town of Petionville, a suburb of Port Au Prince.

Woo was in the Dominican Republic when the earthquake struck last year and ended up going to Haiti to help. She's been back three times and is committed to seeing the school get built. She said there's little money for education from the government and little opportunity for youngsters to learn.

Woo said she values education. "As a Korean-American, my parents gave up careers (in Korea) to give me an education," she said.

David Mazor, executive director of Reader to Reader, heard about Woo and her work in Haiti and began working with her on the project. He said it's part of Reader to Reader's growing international reach. The organization donates books and computers to schools and promotes literacy in myriad ways.

Besides the dinner auction, Woo said students are holding an art auction and dinner at Mount Holyoke to raise money. The artwork will remain on display until Feb. 13 at the student gallery, Blanchard Campus Center at Mount Holyoke.

The auction ends Feb. 24 at a dinner.

Besides buying the land and the building, they need money for teachers and supplies.

Woo said they want to see the school be self-supporting eventually, and the idea is to make it sustainable with a farm, using micro-finance models.

Collins, who lives in Pelham, said he got involved because the couple in Salem who he normally cooks for on Valentine's Day decided not to hire him this year. He decided to offer his services for charity and has done some things for Reader to Reader before.

Collins will prepare a menu of the diners' choice in the couple's home. While such dinners usually cost $300, Collins said, "I'm not looking for somebody to get a bargain. I'm looking to get a bundle to Reader to Reader."

To bid on the dinner, visit www.chefbill.com. The auction ends Feb. 10. To learn more about Reader to Reader, visit http://www.reader toreader.org and to learn about Hope of Haiti visit http://www.hopeofhaiti.org

Win a Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner for Two and Help Build a School in Haiti!

2011-02-01T07:39:00.004-05:00

Chef Bill Collins has generously donated a romantic dinner for two cooked in your own home with all proceeds from the online auction going to Reader to Reader’s Hope of Haiti project. The project is building a school in the tent city area of Petionville, Haiti.

Chef Bill (www.chefbill.com) is a personal chef in Western Massachusetts. He is offering a four-course dinner to the winning bidder, to be prepared in their home on Monday evening, February 14, 2010. The lucky couple will select the menu, and enjoy an evening of food, fun, and relaxation. Quite often, Chef Bill’s dinners turn into an impromptu cooking lesson. Having a Chef Bill dinner is like having your own cooking lesson TV show right in your kitchen!

Chef Bill will travel anywhere for this dinner. For details, please visit his website, www.chefbill.com

Chef Bill Collins has operated his business, Chef Bill, Inc, since 2001. He has cooked for many people (including some very famous folks) throughout New England and beyond. He also does cooking lesson parties, cooking lessons, Romantic Dinners for Two, and small dinner parties. He teaches classes for the public at Stonewall Kitchen and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Place your bid at http://www.chefbill.com/2011/01/valentines-day-romantic-dinner-for-two-auction/ and have an amazing, delicious, fun-filled night while helping us do important work in Haiti.

Haiti Art Exhibit Opening February 1

2011-01-27T08:02:00.003-05:00

Please Join us as Mount Holyoke College students Khushbu Mishra and Haeinn Woo hold an opening reception for their collaborative exhibit, "Art from Grassroots" on Tuesday, February 1, 2011, from 7:30PM-9:30PM.

The exhibit showcases paintings from Nepali women who participated in Mishra's art institute and the artwork created by Haitian children Woo has helped since the earthquake. The work will remain on display until February 13. Proceeds from a silent auction on February 24 will go to the art institute in Nepal and to build a school in Haiti through the Reader to Reader project "Hope of Haiti".

Location: Blanchard Student Gallery, Blanchard Campus Center, Mount Holyoke College, S. Hadley, MA

Imagine What it Would be Like to be a Haitian Child

2011-01-24T06:51:00.007-05:00

(Haeinn Woo reports on her recent trip to Haiti. The “Hope of Haiti” project is working on a grassroots level to build a school and orphanage in a tent city. Her team of intrepid Mount Holyoke College students brought down suitcases crammed full of school supplies. Reader to Reader is pleased to partner on this project, helping them fundraise and gather resources.)

My name is Haeinn, a Korean American from Long Island, New York and a senior with a major called Faith and Science at Mount Holyoke College. In January 2011, I traveled to Haiti with three other Mount Holyoke students: Sharon from Korea/China, Tebo from Botswana, and Mervnide, a Haitian American from Boston.

I organized this pilot service trip to help a Haitian grassroots organization called OFPADAH build a school for impoverished children in the community of Meyotte, and to provide an educational experience for both Mount Holyoke students and Haitian children. I was connected with OFPADAH through its founder, John Peterson Raymond, the first time I went to Haiti the week after the earthquake in January 2010.

When John first asked me if I would like to help his organization build a school, I knew this was going to be a long term commitment and my portion of reconstructing Haiti. After I met many orphans and children in the community who did not have access to schools, and ordinary Haitian people who came together to develop their own community, I couldn’t refuse this opportunity to help. So I gathered support from my school and Reader to Reader, and decided to return to Haiti with this group.

As soon as we left behind snowy New England, we had to get used to being uncomfortable, from sleeping in the Florida airport to being bounced around in a “tap taps” (Haitian public transportation) on very rocky roads. We stayed in the house of a Korean missionary Simon Kim, who has been working in Haiti for 8 years and supports the children of Cite Soleil, the poorest slum in Port Au Prince. He took us to visit the children and school in a ghetto within Cite Soleil called “ti Kanada,” or “little Canada.” We had to cross a bridge over a river of sewage to the school’s entrance. About 20 children were studying in the tin-roofed two classrooms with one teacher who was also the principal. The children were beautiful and bright in their pink uniforms and smiles.

We also visited an orphanage in a village called Meyer. Father Bourdeau Jonel who is a Haitian Catholic priest has been running this orphanage in a dilapidated rented building for three years. The orphans were absolutely precious. They were such talented artists and by the end of the math lesson, many of them could count up to twenty in English. Father Jonel told me that our visit had made a very special day for the children and asked me to help him find sponsors and volunteers in the US. There are so many orphanages like this that I visited in Haiti, but Father Jonel struck me as someone who has true compassion and really wanted to change the lives of these orphans. He told me they had already lost a child to cholera. But after a missionary installed a water filter, the children are able to drink and wash in safe water.

I also had meetings with OFPADAH to discuss the buying or renting the land for the school, cost of construction, and teacher salaries. We came up with a contract that defined their role and OFPADAH in this project. OFPADAH also gathered about 80 children in a church in Petionville for us to meet. First thing we did was introduce ourselves and then we did a hand-raising survey. “Who goes to school, who doesn’t go to school?” I asked. Many of the students attended school, but only for a few months of the year because of the high tuition. There were also street children who had never been to school.

Our team taught English, math, cholera prevention and treatment, to the children. We verbally tested them on some important concepts they had learned and rewarded them for participation. For the children older than 10 years, I also taught basic sexual health and we were able to get at some meaningful discussion about how to prevent HIV/AIDS. We also did arts and craft, drawing and finger painting to explore creatively what they had learned. The children’s artworks were mostly what you would expect from kids their age, but their subject matter showed what children in Haiti see, such as palm trees, helicopters and cholera. The children were enthusiastic learners and they were all full of dreams of a better future. I think that a high quality school that will provide an affordable education to every child, especially the orphans and children of refugees is very needed in this community.

The challenges I faced on this trip helped me grow so much. I got to taste the unpredictability of tomorrow and feel the joy and gratitude for being alive today, at this moment, like the children I met. There were risks I could not predict or control, difficult cultural barriers to negotiate, mistakes and some bad luck as well. So I learned to be more resourceful, patient and resilient from obstacles including traffic jams, communication difficulties due to dead phones, long meetings with language barriers, and my bag being stolen. All these experiences will prepare me better for future work in Haiti.

Haiti to me is an absolutely fascinating place, rich in culture, history, and work to be done. This beautiful Caribbean nation, which is proud of being the first black republic of the world, faced so much oppression from colonialism and neoliberalism, and still suffers form much misunderstanding and exploitations. Haitians deserve more respect than pity for their resilience in overcoming so much to just live. The foreign aid efforts need to better coordinate with Haitians partners and support existing Haitian community organizations like OFPADAH and Father Jonel’s orphanage to provide education and loving support for the most vulnerable children.

I believe it is each of our duty to respond to the sad realities of the world, by trying to imagine what it would be like to be a Haitian child for three seconds, and take the next step to do something about it.
--Haeinn Woo

Culturally appropriate! And greatly appreciated!

2011-01-18T13:14:00.001-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

The books you sent arrived today.
They are new! Beautiful!
Culturally appropriate!
And greatly appreciated!

And just in time for me to get them down to Guatemala in my next shipment.

Thank you for thinking of us,

Linda Smith
Founder and President
Reading Village, Guatemala

Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Gloom of Night...

2011-01-14T14:47:00.003-05:00

Two feet of snow is no deterrent to Cait Scudder who is heading to Costa Rica with books for the new public library in the coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz. Lucky Cait!

The library is part of Reader to Reader’s Beyond el Campo project, which builds libraries, and holds literacy camps and workshops in rural Costa Rica.

The new Spanish-language books were generously donated by Amherst College’s Frost Library.

In addition to Cait Scudder, two other Amherst College students, Alex Strecker and Mari Crook, traveled this month to Santa Cruz. Between all three of them they brought hundreds of books to expand the library which opened its doors in July.

You are amazing, wonderful, generous...

2011-01-11T09:32:00.001-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader Staff,

You are amazing, wonderful, generous, thoughtful, brilliant, etc. The box of books I just opened was thrilling. My principal came down to see the treasure chest you sent. THOSE BOOKS ARE BRAND NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can not tell you how wonderful they are. I have already begun taking torn ones off the shelf and started replacing them with the beautiful ones you sent. The kids are over the moon. Do you know what you do for these kids? They are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO enthusiastic about reading when new books arrive. YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The children think you are Santa Claus.

You truly are wonderful and your generosity never goes unappreciated.

Lisa Mutter
Librarian
Henry J. Winters Elementary
Pawtucket, RI

Xerox Funds Bridgeport Literacy Initiative

2011-01-06T16:09:00.000-05:00

A special thank you to the Xerox Corporation for funding the fourth year of Reader To Reader's Bridgeport Literacy Initiative.

The Bridgeport Literacy Initiative brings much-needed books to low-income children attending schools in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

New Year Brings Books From Barnes & Noble

2011-01-03T07:03:00.002-05:00

Mike Messina of Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Millbury, Massachusetts, helps load Reader to Reader’s van with 20 boxes of books collected by the store’s Holiday Book Drive.

The book drive will bring over a thousand new children’s books to schools, libraries and shelters.

A special thank you to all the staff at Barnes & Noble store #2206 for all their hard work.

Help Bring Hope to Haiti

2010-12-23T12:32:00.003-05:00

A new school and orphanage is the goal of a 100% community-run effort to bring education to the children of Petionville, Haiti. A building, books, and other resources are needed. The school will serve hundreds of the village's poorest children.

The project is a partnership between OFPADHA (Organization of the Proud Patriots for Development of Haiti), a grassroots organization lead by Haitian community leaders, Hope of Haiti, a Mount Holyoke College student group, and Reader to Reader.

The Mount Holyoke College student group was founded by Haeinn Woo, a Korean-American student attending Mount Holyoke who was volunteering as a doula in a hospital in San Francisco de Marcoris, Dominican Republic when the devastating earthquake hit. Woo cancelled her trip back to the U.S. and headed to Haiti.

"My heart told me I should go where there are people I could help," says Haeinn. "The Dominican Defensa Civil offered me a ride and a friend donated $100 via Western Union. With that money I was able to stuff a big duffel bag with canned foods and medicine from a Dominican pharmacy."

In August, Haeinn returned to Haiti only to find the situation was desperate despite the hundreds of millions that had been pledged by the world community.

"Six months after the earthquake, the situation in Haiti didn't improve much since the earthquake. The international community pledged their aid to Haiti and Obama administration pledged $100 million to their reconstruction efforts. However, so far, only a fraction the aid money has reached the desperate in Haiti. People like you donated millions of dollars, but according to a Haitian source, less than half of these donations have actually reached their intended destination. And from my own observation of chaotic coordination of aid a week after the earthquake, such as donated food rotting in the airport storage while food riots were happening right outside the airport, there seems to be more than enough reasons to not just trust big aid organizations to be delivering our donations to the people who need it.

The big organizations seem to be hindered by inefficient bureaucracy and lack of workers on site. In contrast, OFPDH was established by the Haitian community itself and managed by trustworthy Haitian community leaders who know their own family and the community's needs best. Since these leaders are helping their own families, there is little worry for donations disappearing into the pockets of corrupted politicians. Supporting such organizations is the most helpful way to help Haiti."

Reader to Reader has begun fundraising to raise the $3,000 to buy land for the school and to purchase Creole-language books. We are also collecting school supplies, including pens, pencils, crayons, pencil sharpeners, and other arts & crafts supplies which will be brought to Haiti on January 5, 2011 by a team of five Mount Holyoke students who will be spending three weeks in Haiti working on the project.

As the U.S. partner in the project, Reader to Reader will be overseeing the financial management of the project and will work diligently to make sure every penny is spent effectively and appropriately.
You can help!

Donate online (please mention Haiti), or bring or mail funds or school supplies to Reader to Reader c/o Cadigan Center, 38 Woodside Ave,, Amherst, MA 01002.

For more information email info@readertoreader.org.

School Supplies for Haiti!

2010-12-21T16:20:00.004-05:00

Mount Holyoke College student Haeinn Woo with the first box of school supplies for the new Hope of Haiti project. The goal is to build a tent school in Meyotte, Haiti.

More supplies are needed!

The new project is partnership between Haitian grassroots group OFPADAH, Reader to Reader, and Hope of Haiti (a student group at Mount Holyoke College.) Together we are fundraising and gathering school supplies.

For more information email info@readertoreader.org.

Thanks Anthropologie!

2010-12-17T14:46:00.003-05:00

Volunteer Ann Greene shows off some of the great titles we just received from the online Holiday Book Drive with Anthropologie.

Hundreds of books have already been delivered to us and more are coming!

Reader to Reader is pleased to partner with Anthropologie, a specialty lifestyle retailer that offers an uncommon selection of home and apparel merchandise, to help stock the bookshelves of our nation's neediest schools and public libraries.

Navajo Nation Book Drive Grows!

2010-12-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

The mountain of books for the Navajo Nation Library Book Drive continues to grow! Our goal is to ship 13,000 books to the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona this spring.

Here are details on how you can contribute:

The Navajo Nation Library Book Drive is collecting 100,000 books and 100 computers for the Navajo Nation Library. To date we have donated 25,000 books and 20 computers. The Navajo Nation Library serves the 27,000 sq. mile Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Please help us by following these guidelines.

1. Books should be in very good or excellent condition. (Books on Native-American subjects will be accepted in any condition).
2. Books on the subject of medicine or health should be no older than 4 years old.
3. CDs and DVDs accepted. No records, VHS or cassette tapes.
4. No magazines.
5. No textbooks.
6. No encyclopedias.
7. Donations of more than 10 boxes of books at a time should first contact us at info@readertoreader.org so we can make storage space arrangements.
8. People interested in donating computers should first contact us at info@readertoreader.org before making the donation. All computer donations must be pre-approved.

Books should be shipped to:

Navajo Nation Book Drive
Reader To Reader, Inc.
Cadigan Center – 38 Woodside Ave.
Amherst, MA 01002

Reader to Reader Receives Major Grant from May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust

2010-12-09T10:16:00.000-05:00

Kudos to Kat Libby for her hard work this summer doing grant writing. We are pleased to announce the receipt of a major grant from the May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust. The May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust supports children & youth; elders; the disabled & critically ill; disadvantaged adults & families.

Your donations have made a significant difference!

2010-12-03T07:11:00.000-05:00

Dear Reader to Reader,

Thank you so much for the books that you donated to the Bellamy Library. Your donations have made a significant difference in the options our students have when selecting library books to read, and books to win as raffle prizes for successful Accelerated Reader scores.

Here at Bellamy, students who earn high scores on Accelerated Reader quizzes are entered into a library raffle. Every couple of weeks names are drawn and the raffle winners receive a donated book. Having these newer books available for prizes will definitely serve as a strong motivator for our reading incentive program. Students are already looking at the popular titles that they might win.

Thank you again for your commitment to the reading interests of our students and the generosity you have shown our library!

Happy Reading!

Tessa Grassetti
Bellamy Middle School Librarian
Chicopee, MA

Reader to Reader Receives Carnegie Corporation Grant

2010-12-01T10:44:00.000-05:00

A very special congratulations to Kat Libby for her hard work this summer doing grant writing. We are pleased to announce the receipt of a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The grant is the single largest in the history of Reader to Reader and was the result of Kat’s mighty pen!

Arms Full of Books!

2010-11-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

We are so pleased to have hosted another group of Big Brothers/Big Sisters participants. Yesterday was our third group this month. It was a fun event and the kids picked out as many books as they could carry. Pictured here is Freya, who filled he backpack and had another armload as well. That’s what we like to see! A true book lover.

Book It Program Brings Book Shelves to Springfield

2010-11-22T15:07:00.002-05:00

Reader to Reader is proud to be a sponsor of Square One’s Book It! program.

The program places book shelves with free children’s books throughout Springfield, MA, and gave away over 5,000 books in the first two months.

The book shelves are located in gas stations, early education and child care facilities, and a host of other locations that reach low-income families. Children are able to keep the books, and book ownership has a direct link on reading proficiency and academic achievement. Reader to Reader is providing hundreds of children’s books, and is pleased to join the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, Link to Libraries, and Health New New England as program sponsors.

Reader To Reader Partners With Anthropologie

2010-11-19T08:00:00.002-05:00

This holiday season Reader to Reader is pleased to partner with Anthropologie, a specialty lifestyle retailer that offers an uncommon selection of home and apparel merchandise, to help stock the bookshelves of our nation's neediest schools and public libraries.

Visit Anthropologie online to purchase delightful children’s books that will be delivered directly to Reader to Reader.

Throughout December, select Anthropologie stores will be hosting reading hours for children, as well as book drives in support of Reader to Reader and other outstanding local charities—won't you join them in the merrymaking?

Books For Big Brothers/Big Sisters

2010-11-17T09:16:00.004-05:00

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County visited Reader to Reader yesterday and all the kids had a fun time picking out as many books as they wanted. They were delighted to have books that they could keep. We were delighted to have them visit, and that they were excited about books!

What could be better than your arms full of books!

Books Heading to Haiti

2010-11-15T07:16:00.006-05:00

Nancy Marshall, a volunteer with First Church in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, is heading down to Haiti with 260 French-language children’s books that Reader to Reader collected.

The First Church has for a number of years supported a 6 story office/school/clinic building run by CONASPEH (Conseuil Natianale d’Eglises Sprirtuel d’Ayiti (National Council of Spiritual Churches of Haiti) in the Tabarre section of Port-au-Prince. The building was destroyed in last January’s earthquake. Thankfully, none of the school’s 600 pre-school through 12th grade students were in the building at the time of the quake, however, 14 nurses, several staff and others were killed.

The building is now being rebuilt, and Nancy Marshall provides an overview of the importance of CONASPEH’s library.

“The feather in CONASPEH’s cap was that it had a whole, real, library. In all the times I’ve been to Haiti, I never saw any other library anywhere, nor did I ever see a book store. Classes are taught by rote; i.e. the teacher has a book, from which (s)he teaches, but the students don’t have books. At first, the books I donated just stayed in the CONASPEH library, and were proudly shown off to visitors. It took a bit of careful teacher education and encouragement with the primary school principal to accomplish loaning each classroom teacher a basket of books for a month, and to let the youngsters peruse one a day as a reward, and then get a new bunch of books the next month. The youngsters love them and are so proud of the books! Also, selected high school seniors were taught and entrusted with “library duty” (in return for scholarship funding) during which time they sat at the library entrance and monitored students and adults who visited the library and could use any book, for as long as they stayed in the library. At first, as I’ve said, all of the books were housed in the Tabarre building, for show, but as the library grew and the teachers and students learned to love books, the pastors/teachers in the smaller outlying parishes began to beg for books. So the need for books is ever growing!

Books have not been allowed to go home with students or adults, because books are “hard to come by” and therefore, expensive. Even if a child promised to bring back the book, someone else might take it and sell it, because one can eat quite a few meals for the price of a book. It has been about 4 years since I’ve been bringing books-in-French to CONASPEH, and in that four years, books have gone from being “those revered things up on the top floor” to something they love and cherish and use. It will be a while before the lending library concept can be implemented in Port-au-Prince, but know that a growing number of children there are learning to love books because of CONASPEH, and because of Reader to Reader!

The 6 story building was leveled January 12 and it was weeks before all the bodies and rubble was sorted through and disposed of. We received a proud email in March telling us triumphantly that there were a number of books that were salvaged, so they at least had a small start on replenishing the library. From where else but Haiti would you hear such a story? Classes began again in April on the CONASPEH grounds in huge tents, and work is just now commencing on rebuilding the building, thanks to contributions from all over the US and Canada. Many people prefer to donate to CONASPEH and CRUDEM because they know the people and know the money is going straight into use by honest Haitian people, with no middleman agency.

If you can ever hear of a nursing program that is replenishing their French text books, those are a top desire – they’re expensive and hard to come by.

Our group will return to CONASPEH in mid-November 2010 and we always ask what they wanted us to bring in the 2 fifty pound suitcases we’re each allowed to bring --- guess what they said --- BOOKS!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU ! ! ! “

Nancy Marshall, PhD, OTR/L
For CONASPEH

Win This Beautiful Artwork!

2010-11-08T12:14:00.003-05:00

Reader to Reader is raffling this beautiful, original watercolor, “Story Works Mouse,” by award-winning artist Wendell Minor.

Proceeds will benefit Reader to Reader’s effort to rebuild the Mesa Elementary School library, which was destroyed by arson on September 12, 2010.

This piece, with a value of $2,500, has been beautifully framed courtesy of Valley Frame Works.

Drawing will be December 15. The perfect gift for the holidays!

Tickets are $20 each and 3 for $50.

You can enter the raffle online by writing “raffle” on the online donation page. Tickets can be purchased by mail by mailing a check to:

Reader to Reader Raffle
Cadigan Center
38 Woodside Avenue
Amherst, MA 01002

A Fun, Free Event For Book Lovers Young & Old!

2010-11-04T10:11:00.004-04:00

Join Us At The 21st Annual Children's Illustration Show

Please join us on Sunday, November 7, for a special Reader to Reader event honoring Wendell Minor for his devotion to literacy at the 21st Annual Children's Illustration Show.

This fun, free event features over 50 premier picture book illustrators and authors.

OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday, November 7, 4pm - 6pm

R. Michelson Galleries
132 Main Street
Northampton, MA
413-586-3964

(Admission is free)

Meet famous children's illustrators and join us as we present author and illustrator Wendell Minor with the Norton Juster Award for devotion to literacy.

Refreshments generously donated by Portabella Fine Foods, Whole Foods Market, and Big Y World Class Market.

Computers! Computers! Computers!

2010-11-01T08:41:00.002-04:00

Kat Libby shows off a stack of computers that will be heading overseas to the Eno Boanimah Memorial Academy of Kasoa, Ghana.

The school was started in September of 2009, and Reader to Reader is helping the school set up a resource center which includes a library and computer lab.

The refurbished computers were donated by Amherst College and were refurbished thanks to the IT department.

Thanks for the Books!

2010-10-26T10:34:00.003-04:00

Hi David,

Just got my books, carded them and covered them in mylar. You are truly wonderful. Children have already signed them out! You are a gift to underprivileged libraries. Keep up the good work!

All the best,

Lisa Mutter
Librarian
Henry J. Winters School
Pawtucket, Rhode Island