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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.
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.
Cricket, Ladybug, Spider and More: First Book Brings Award-Winning Children’s Magazines to Kids in Need
Exciting news! First Book will now be offering Cricket and other award-winning kid’s magazines to the 27,000 schools and programs in our national network.
Thanks to our friends at ePals, we’ll be able to offer their full range of children’s magazine titles, including Cricket, Ladybug and Spider. These magazines are terrific; they’ve won pretty much every award possible, and they are loved by teachers and kids.
“This is exactly the sort of content First Book strives to bring to kids in need, so they’ll have the same great opportunities to fall in love with reading as more affluent children,” said Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First Book. “We’re really excited about being able to offer these magazines to the schools and programs we work with.”
The magazines will be available through the First Book Marketplace, our website available exclusively to teachers and program leaders who work with children from low-income families. An annual classroom subscription – 30 copies of each issue – retails for $1,018, but is available through First Book for $513.
If you work with children in need, sign up with First Book to get these great magazines for your kids. We also carry over 2,000 book titles at deeply-discounted prices, and distribute millions more every year – free of charge – to the programs in our network.
First Book Earns Highest Possible Rating from Charity Navigator
We’re proud to announce that First Book has earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the highest possible ranking from America’s premier charity evaluator.
“We’ve been putting new books into the hands of children and teachers for twenty years. The work that we do helps transform the lives of kids in need, and we’re delighted to be recognized by Charity Navigator. We want our donors to feel confident that we’re putting their hard-earned gifts to good use, and this rating proves that.”
– Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First Book
Charity Navigator rates nonprofit organizations to provide donors of all levels with reliable data about the impact, efficiency and fiscal health of the organizations.
At First Book, we work hard to make sure we’re creating the greatest possible impact as efficiently as we can, and we’re proud to have earned this distinction. We’re grateful to all of you for supporting our work, and we’re glad to show you that we’re using your donations responsibly.
Click here to donate! At First Book, 95 cents out of every dollar goes directly to putting news books into the hands of kids in need in communities across the country.
Kids Are Eager to Read: Just Add Books
First Book was part of all kinds of great events across the country for Read Across America Day on Friday, including a tremendous partnership in the city of Newark. Working with some great local nonprofits, we were able to provide almost 17,000 brand-new books — including plenty of Dr. Seuss titles, since Read Across America Day is Dr. Seuss’s birthday — to students at eight Title I public schools in Newark.
We got to meet lots of amazing kids at Belmont-Runyon Elementary, along with some of the educators and public servants that do so much and put so much of themselves into their work.
“I’m just so happy that our kids in Newark are getting thousands of books,” said Mayor Cory Booker. “Not put in libraries or in schools, but actually put in their hands for them to own.”
As always, the best part was seeing the looks on the children’s faces when they were given new books of their own to keep. You might think it was just the excitement any child feels when they’re being given shiny new things, but almost every one of those kids sat down to open their new Dr. Seuss books and start reading them — right there on the floor.
Most kids from low-income families have no books of their own at home. A new book is more than just a novelty for kids like the ones at Belmont-Runyon Elementary; it’s a rare treasure. To see how eager they are to read, you only need to hand them a book.
“The kids love getting these books, they’re really excited about it,” said Lois Myers, librarian at Belmont-Runyon Elementary. “They say ‘We get to keep these books!?’”
First Book doesn’t haul a truckload of books up and dump them on the doorstep. We work carefully with local partners to ensure that the books are part of an ongoing effort to transform children’s lives and elevate the quality of their education.
- The educators at the Newark schools selected quality titles that they knew their kids would respond to.
- Community groups like New Jersey After 3 and the Foundation for Newark’s Future brought in authors to read to the children and coordinated a school-wide assembly to celebrate books and reading.
- Anne Feeley, a generous donor (and Newark native) provided funding to help make everything possible through the Foundation for Newark’s Future’s “My Very Own Library” initiative.
- Local leaders like Mayor Booker made time to spend the day with the children, to entertain them and to let them know they were important.
- Volunteers and parents decorated the auditorium with a Dr. Seuss theme that would have put professional set designers to shame.
We were proud to be a part of an event like this, and happy to bring the books.
Just like we’d be proud to work with people and organizations anywhere who care about improving the lives of the most vulnerable children in their community. When we all work together, we make big things happen.
If you’d like to support First Book’s work, volunteer in your community, or sign up your Title I school or local nonprofit to get new books, we’d love to hear from you.
Happy Friendiversary! Mo Willems and First Book Join Forces to Bring New Books to New Orleans Kids
Feb07
2012
Written by Brian Minter
2012
Written by Brian Minter
Today is Friendiversary, when we celebrate the anniversary of our friendships. Think of one of your oldest and dearest friends. When did you first meet? How did you meet? That story is the story of your Friendiversary.
First Book is celebrating Friendiversary this week by providing 7,000 new Elephant & Piggie books to second-graders at Title I schools in Louisiana and Massachusetts. The Elephant & Piggie series is written and illustrated by our friend Mo Willems, whose support makes it possible for First Book able to provide these books. Every book includes a special Friendiversary note from Mo, and his publisher, Disney Publishing Worldwide, is also providing activity kits, stickers and posters free of charge to each classroom.
In fact, we’re so delighted with the Friendiversary kit that we also made it available to all the schools and programs in First Book’s national network.
There are Friendiversary parties happening in classrooms and programs all over today … or tomorrow, or last weekend. We’re pretty flexible on when you actually celebrate Friendiversary.
The biggest party we’ve heard about so far took place in New Orleans, at James Singleton Charter School. (Mo grew up in New Orleans, and has a special place in his heart for New Orleans kids, so making sure they all had copies of his books was important to him.)
Lynetta Rhodes, the chair of the local First Book volunteer group in New Orleans, organized the party. “I love to see the community come together for our children,” she said. “You should have seen their faces light up when they saw Elephant and Piggie!”
Lynetta sent us some great pictures, and filled us in on all the details:
- Every student got two copies of Mo’s books to keep, including There’s a Bird On Your Head, Are You Ready to Play Outside?, Today I Will Fly and Should I Share My Ice Cream?. (“I can’t believe I got two books!” one of the students told Lynetta).
- There were all kinds of local celebrity guests on hand to read with the kids, including New Orleans city councilmember Susan Guidry, children’s author Robin Washington, Louisiana State Rep. Wesley Bishop and TV reporter Rosa Flores.
- There was plenty of ice cream.
“The children looked adorable in their ‘Elephant and Piggie’ ears and the costumed characters made the kids shout with glee,” said local author Dianne de Las Casas, the MC for the event. “Friendiversary at James Singleton Charter School was a great success.”
Happy Friendiversary, everyone!
If you work with kids from low-income families, you can be a part of Friendiversary and other great events and opportunities throughout the year. Sign up with First Book to find out how we can help you get new books for your kids.