I received an email from a friend the other day:

Hi First Bookies! (Or do you prefer First Bookers?)

I have a slightly random favor to ask of whoever among you most loves Charlotte’s Web and the Guinness Book of World Records….

A few emails and a couple of days later, a few other First Bookies (First Bookers?) and I were on our way into the record books. The new Charlotte’s Web movie organized a huge, multi-national reading event, including over 500,000 individuals. The record? Most people reading the same passage aloud at the same time.

Those of us who were able to volunteer (there’s a cold that’s been going around the office) were being recruited as “Independent Witnesses.” Two per school, we dispersed out through the city to participating schools. My coworker Elena and I headed out to Ross Elementary near Dupont Circle.

Now, I am not going to get mushy and say that seeing the children all orate in unison a classic children’s book tugged at my heart strings. However I will say that I was awestruck at the fact that half-a-million people, all over the world, were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

That is truly incredible. The 30 or so kids in the modest sized library of Ross elementary were but a small contributory part of something so much larger and more powerful, yet lose a single one of them and maybe, just maybe, you don’t have the record any more. You don’t have the full power and voice that a half-a-million people are capable of creating. Even though I couldn’t hear the rest of our record-setting friends, I knew they were there working with us.

And this all brings me back to First Book and the 46 million books we’ve been able to deliver — over 46 million books, actually. Fourteen years now, one full nation across (and soon to be international), and a book in every single child’s hand we are able to get them into. One less publisher-donated book and maybe, just maybe, that’s one less child with a book in their hands. One less dollar donated and maybe, just maybe, that’s one less book we were able to send out the door. One less volunteer and maybe, just maybe, that’s a fund raising drive we can’t run, a pallet of books that we can’t move, or a child in need that we can’t reach.

So I guess what I am trying to say is, “THANK YOU!” What each and every one of you has helped accomplish is incredible; we wouldn’t have the same full impact if you didn’t contribute — even just a little bit. I don’t know that there’s currently a world record for helping children’s literacy, but you’ll all be a part of it when they establish one.