There was a little bit of celebrity buzz going around the building last Thursday. First Book’s good friend Eric Close, Verizon Literacy Champion and actor from the hit TV show Without a Trace, stopped by with a team from Verizon for a tour of our offices. They were on their way to an event in which Verizon presented First Book with a check for $95,000 to fund our new Literacy Registry!

We did our best to “roll out the red carpet” for Eric; he has been a huge supporter of First Book. Just listen to his podcast here on our blog for proof of that. Here are a few highlights from his day with First Book.

11:15 am - Eric and crew arrived at our office in Washington, DC, and met with our senior staff.

11:20 am - We gave Eric a tour of the office and introduced him to the First Book team. He’s the kind of person who remembers your name once he’s met you…what a classy guy!

     Eric Close meets members of the First Book staff.

11:50 am - We brought in sandwiches and cookies and had a nice lunch.

12:00 pm - First Book president Kyle Zimmer, filled Eric in on the growth First Book is experiencing. It wasn’t all business though; there were lots of laughs! At one point Eric (jokingly) suggested doing some couch acrobatics to celebrate when we reach our 50 millionth-book milestone.

     Eric Close speaks with Kyle Zimmer and others from the
     First Book staff.

12:30 pm - The whole crew headed over to the event at the Charles Sumner School, a historic 1872 school building that is now a museum and archive.

12:45 pm - A class of very outgoing 5th graders arrived from James G. Birney Elementary School.

1:15 pm - Eric, along with Janet Stevens from Verizon Yellow Pages, presented Kyle with a $95,000 check! This amazing gift will help us build up the new First Book Literacy Registry, a definitive listing of all the literacy programs in the United States.

     Eric Close, First Book President Kyle Zimmer, and
     Verizon’s Janet Stevens.

1:25 pm - Jane from our staff joined Eric in leading a book discussion of Book 1 of the “Warriors” series by Erin Hunter. After some Q&A, Eric actually got the kids to take a whiff of that “new book smell.”

     The kids smell their new books.

1:45 pm - The curator of the museum took the whole group on a tour. The Frederick Douglass room seemed to be everyone’s favorite.

2:00 pm - It was time for Eric to catch his plane back to California. He came out to DC just for this event!

A million thanks to Eric Close and our friends at Verizon!