First Book had the honor of hosting its first ever National Book Bank distribution in Louisville, KY last week – April 6-9. As the recipient of a 50,000 book donation from securing the winning votes from the “What Book Got You Hooked?” campaign, the Bluegrass State welcomed us with open arms and helped get a total of 250,000 books into the hands of children in Kentucky and across the nation.

We kicked off our visit with a Meet & Greet at Republic Bank, organized by our friends at the National Center for Family Literacy. Sharon Darling, President of NCFL, spoke to the Recipient Groups that attended and provided them with resource packets promoting literacy in the family. Following Ms. Darling, a representative of Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson surprised us with a plaque proclaiming April 6, 2009 as First Book Day! The plaque will hang proudly in our office and stand as evidence that First Book Day does exist and should be considered an office holiday. US Representative John Yarmuth (KY-3) closed the gathering with a promise to continue supporting literacy in Kentucky. All in all, it was a great Meet & Greet and a fantastic start to our week in Louisville!

The next three days were spent making sure a total of 250,000 books were distributed from a UPS warehouse in Louisville. Over 100,000 books were given to groups in Kentucky – evidenced by the long line of cars waiting to pick up books at the warehouse! Some of the UPS staff had their doubts that four First Book staff members and volunteers could move hundreds of thousands of books in 3 days, but the First Book team quickly won them over with our speed. The distribution came down to the wire, but we got all of the books distributed before our deadline (we like a little action on our distributions).

Of course, we wouldn’t have been able to get all these books out the door without the help of our great volunteers from Chase Bank, Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, the Department of Health, and other local organizations, so thank you all! We look forward to our next visit to Kentucky.