Written by ![When it Comes to Books, Teachers' Biggest Concerns [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/book-concerns-poll-from-First-Book1.jpg "When it Comes to Books, Teachers' Biggest Concerns [INFOGRAPHIC]")
If you’re a teacher or program leader who works with kids in need, let us know what you think. Leave a comment below, or comment on First Book’s Facebook page.
First Book Volunteers in Action: Trumbull County’s Edible Books
Written by There is no question that we love delicious food and a great book. So, it comes as no surprise that one of our favorite First Book volunteer fundraisers is First Book-Trumbull County’s annual Edible Book Art Festival fundraising event. For the past three years, participants have been challenged to create an art piece out of 100% edible material representing a classic or current children’s book, and festival attendees make a donation to vote on their favorite entries. Yummy!
This delicious fundraiser raised hundreds of dollars that funded grants that provide books for local children in need. We are inspired by the ingenuity and creativity of our many wonderful advisory boards across the country.
If you would like to learn more about how you can volunteer with First Book and help us get books to kids in need, please visit us at firstbook.org/get-involved.
Check out some of the awesome entries from this year’s event below.
![IMG_0209 [1280x768]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0209-1280x768-150x112.jpg "IMG_0209 [1280x768]")
![IMG_0212 [1280x768]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0212-1280x768-150x112.jpg "IMG_0212 [1280x768]")
![IMG_0213 [1280x768]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0213-1280x768-150x112.jpg "IMG_0213 [1280x768]")
![IMG_0217 [1280x768]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0217-1280x768-150x112.jpg "IMG_0217 [1280x768]")
![IMG_0218 [1280x768]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0218-1280x768-150x112.jpg "IMG_0218 [1280x768]")
![IMG_0219 [1280x768]](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0219-1280x768-150x112.jpg "IMG_0219 [1280x768]")
Give a Bouquet of Books this Mother’s Day
Our moms are often the first people to teach us how to read and our first “librarians”. That’s why First Book loves moms and we LOVE celebrating all of the wonderful moms in our lives on Mother’s Day.
Every year, millions of us purchase a bouquet of flowers to honor the mothers in our lives. This year, why not celebrate her with a bouquet of books? Make a donation to First Book in the name of a special mom in your life, and send her an e-card to let her know you were thinking about her. We’ll use your donation to continue providing new books for children in need.
One Million Books in Just Ten Days: The Final Reckoning
Recently, First Book promised to distribute one million brand-new books to kids in need across the country in just ten days.
Those ten days are up, and we are as good as our word. Better, even … altogether we distributed a little over 1.2 million books to the schools and programs in our national network. Woot!
25,000 of those books went to kids at Title I schools across Montana. Heather Denny, a Title I specialist in Montana who was instrumental in helping First Book distribute the books at a statewide conference of Title I teachers, emailed us this morning to tell us how excited her colleagues were.
“It was amazing!” she wrote. “You should have seen the smiles on our teacher’s faces. We had a retiring teacher who worked in the book room all day because she wanted to see the young teachers coming in and leaving with boxes of books.”
If that doesn’t warm your heart, you are made of sterner stuff than we are.
Thanks to everyone who made this possible, from the hard-working volunteers who spent long, tiring days in warehouses to the generous publishers who provided the books to our nonprofit and corporate partners who provide the support needed, and especially to all the teachers and local program leaders who take these books and use them to turn kids into readers.
Want to get involved in our next amazing book distribution? Click here to sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you monthly emails sharing stories and letting you know how you can get involved in your community.
It’s Raining Books in Milwaukee
Last week First Book distributed close to 1 million books in Seattle, Washington and Minneapolis, Minnesota. This week, we have a team in Milwaukee, Wisconsin distributing 420,000 books to programs and schools that serve kids in need. Of those 420,000 books, more than 100,000 will be distributed locally throughout the Southeastern Wisconsin area.
To make this distribution possible, New Threads of Hope is donating warehouse space and assistance with logistics, and M&I employees are serving as volunteers, assisting with the packing, shipping and pick up of books throughout the week.
We are incredibly grateful for all of the volunteers and support that we have had over the past couple of weeks. Thanks to the help of of our many volunteers and partners, we are well on our way to distributing 1.2 million books in just 10 days!
Want to learn more? Click here to sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you photos, video and information about how you can help get books to kids in need.
One Million Books in Just Ten Days: Minneapolis!
First Book staff and volunteers are working overtime this week to distribute over one million brand-new books to schools and programs serving kids in need across the country.
This week, we have a team in Seattle, distributing 350,000 new books, as well as a team in Minneapolis, distributing half-a-million books to schools and programs around the country.
Over 200,000 of those books — donated by our generous partners at Random House and Disney Publishing Worldwide — are staying in the Twin cities area, going directly to kids at local schools and programs serving kids in need.
We got the chance to meet some of those local teachers and students yesterday at Hmong International Academy. We also got to do one of our favorite things – give brand-new books to every kid at the school, and watch them sit right down and start reading.
One of First Book’s greatest challenges is connecting with the kids who need our help. Although there are 27,000 local schools and programs in First Book’s national network, that’s only a fraction of the people we’re trying to reach. So we rely on local partners, like the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, to help us get more educators signed up.
“Members of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers have jumped at the chance to be involved in this partnership with First Book,” said Lynn Nordgren, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. “So far, more than 350 teachers have registered with First Book, and about 140 requested books for their students.”
Many thanks to the hard-working volunteers and generous partners and donors who make these book distributions possible, and especially to the heroic teachers and program leaders who do the most difficult jobs, in Minneapolis and around the country, every day.
Want to learn more? Click here to sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you photos, video and some more ways you can get involved.
One Million Books in Just Ten Days: Seattle!
First Book staff and volunteers are lining ‘em up and knocking ‘em down this week as we work to distribute over one million brand-new books to schools and programs serving kids in need across the country.
There are 350,000 new books in the Seattle warehouse, donated by our friends at Random House, Disney Publishing Worldwide and Townsend Press. About 100,000 of those books will be picked up by local teachers and nonprofit leaders, while the rest will be shipped out to similar programs across the country.
“I got the chance yesterday to work alongside Weedy, who helps run an after-school program in LaHood, Wash. that serves 350 children, mostly from low-income families. She was so excited to get books for her students that she was coming to the warehouse twice — once to pick up books for her kids and once just to volunteer!” — Kim, First Book staffer
First Book doesn’t have a warehouse of our own, so when publishers donate huge quantities of new books, we rely on other nonprofits and generous companies to loan us warehouse space. This week we’re working with our friends at World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that provides food, clothing, medicine and other desperately-needed resources to children and families around the world.
We’ve worked with World Vision in the past; they’re amazing people who do a tremendous amount of good, and we’re grateful for their support.
World Vision also helped round up volunteers from the community, who are helping us move pallets, sort out shipping labels and load boxes of new books into teachers’ cars and vans. We’ve got a great bunch of volunteers out there; everyone has been friendly and full of energy and lots of kids in need will have new books next week, thanks to their efforts.
Outstanding work, Seattle!
Tune in tomorrow, when we’ll check in with another group of First Book staff and volunteers in Minneapolis.
Want to learn more? Click here to sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you photos, video and some more ways you can get involved.
One Million Books in Just Ten Days
UPDATES!
- Pictures! Cute Kids, Smiling Volunteers and Boxes of Books
- How Things Went in Seattle
- How Things Went in Minneapolis
- How Things Went in Milwaukee
- The Final Tally
Want to get involved in our next book distribution? Click here to sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you monthly emails sharing stories and letting you know how you can get involved in your community.
Have You Thanked a Volunteer Today?
This week is National Volunteer Week … so be sure to take a moment to thank your friends and neighbors who volunteer their time and energy to improve the lives of the people in our communities.
First Book was founded twenty years ago on a volunteer model, and our national network of volunteers has grown ever since. Today, there are over 1,000 First Book volunteers in over 160 communities across the country, and we’re adding more all the time. First Book volunteers raise money to provide new books to local schools and programs serving kids from low-income families, and they help First Book’s national offices identify more schools and programs that need our help.
We’ve put a lot of new books into the hands of a lot of children in need in the last twenty years, and we couldn’t have done it without our volunteers. Thank you!
Click here to learn more about volunteering with First Book.
First Book & Cheerios Serve Spoonfuls of Stories
First Book is excited to be partnered with Cheerios and Simon & Schuster for the Spoonfuls of Stories program. Over the past ten years this dynamic program has fostered a shared love of reading with parents and kids across the nation by providing more than six million free children’s books in Cheerios boxes throughout the spring.
To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its Spoonfuls of Stories program, Cheerios held seven Breakfast & A Book reading events to encourage parents to read with their children and to support First Book. Actress and mom Jennie Garth teamed up with Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories to kick off of the first book reading in Los Angeles at the Central Branch Library on March 20.
In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of its Spoonfuls of Stories program, Cheerios will donate 5,000 children’s books to First Book partners across the nation.
Consumers can join Cheerios in its quest to get books into the hands of low-income children by making a donation through First Book’s mobile platform, Text2Give. By using short code 2022 and texting Book2Kids, a $5 donation will be made, providing two new books to a child in need. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing will match each donation made via text (up to 50,000 books).
Over the past 10 years, Cheerios has distributed more than 60 million children’s books inside boxes, and donated $3.8 million to First Book. In addition to giving away more than six million books inside boxes this year, Cheerios will make a $300,000 financial donation to First Book.
We’re glad to be partnered with Cheerios to get books to kids in need!