Posts in category National Book Bank

Students at Holy Family Catholic School Receive Over 1,000 Books

Apr19
2013 Leave a Comment Julia Lien Written by Julia Lien

Our guest bloggers today are students from Holy Family Catholic School located in Toronto, Canada. Holy Family is an elementary school that recently signed up with First Book Canada, and they’ve already received over 1,000 books for their small school.

Holy Family Students Forget the electronic games, nothing beats spending time with a fun book. That’s what the students at Holy Family Catholic School discovered when First Book Canada donated a variety of exciting books to the students of the school.

“I like the books I got because the topics were interesting,” said Daniel, a third-grade student at Holy Family. “My books were Traitor’s Gate, Ancient Rome and Medieval Times. These books are my favourites. Thank you First Book Canada, I hope you will send more cool books to us.”

The books included fiction as well as nonfiction catering to readers of various reading levels and ages.  The older students at Holy Family shared in the joy of reading and were similarly appreciative.

“First Book Canada has given kids around Canada an opportunity to read different books on different topics,” said Micah, a sixth-grade student. “Every book tells a story. Even kids from JK were given a chance to get a head start on reading. Most importantly, First Book Canada has let us learn information we never knew before. Thank you for giving our school a chance to turn the TV off and open a book.”

Posted in Book Distributions, First Book Canada, Guest Blog Posts

Books In Dallas And Vegas…Oh My!

Nov28
2012 Gina Rullo Written by Gina Rullo

Books distributed through First Book National Book Bank in Dallas & VegasBooks are bigger in Texas! This week, a National Book Bank team is in Dallas, TX to provide books to local programs and beyond.

Thanks in part to World Vision and their donation of warehouse space, there will be a total of 400,000 books being distributed from the great state of Texas this week.  Hundreds of programs nationwide will be receiving books in English and Spanish, with 112 programs just in the Dallas area picking up over 120,000 books from First Book. Yeehaw!

While one National Book Bank team is moving books out from the South, we have yet another National Book Bank team in the West sending books out at the same time from Las Vegas.

Books distributed through First Book National Book Bank in Dallas & VegasNeon lights will not serve as a distraction this week as a total of 465,000 books will be sent out the warehouse door. With generous support from Spread the Word Nevada and local volunteers, books are going to programs around the country, and First Book will distribute over 150,000 books to 187 local programs just in the Vegas vicinity. Books being picked up in Vegas will stay in Vegas!

From the South to the West, a total of 865,000 books are being picked up Books distributed through First Book National Book Bank in Dallas & Vegasand shipped out from two different states to hundreds of schools and programs who serve kids in need. A special thanks to volunteers from Texas AFT, World Vision, Spread the Word Nevada, local First Book Advisory Boards and many other community groups and members whose time and energy make this possible!

 

Anyone who works with kids in need is eligible to get books from First Book. First Book regularly distributes large quantities of brand-new books donated by publishers, free of charge. To sign up, visit First Book on the web.

Posted in Book Distributions - Tagged , , , , ,

Work With Kids in Need? First Book Will Hook You Up

Sep25
2012 Gina Rullo Written by Gina Rullo

Hey! Do you work with kids in need? If so, then we have thousands of brand-new books for you!

Spanish, English and even bilingual titles for kids ranging from ages 4-18 are now available through First Book.Toy Story offered through First Book National Book BankPhineas & Ferb offered through First Book National Book Bank

If you’re looking for fun and creative ways to teach Spanish to the children in your classroom or program, we have arts and coloring books that come with crayons and glitter pens. Many more Spanish titles are also available, including books from the Phineas & Ferb collection.

WeBlue Bloods offered through First Book National Book Bank also have bilingual titles that showcase familiar Disney characters while teaching vocabulary – examples include The Lion King: Movement and Cars: Colors, and an assortment of English titles to choose from such as Disney Nursery Rhymes & Fairy Tales and several books from the popular Blue Blood teen series.

These titles and more are available now! To get these books for free, Sign up with First Book today!sign up withFirst Book today. The books are available through First Book’s National Book Bank program; we take large-scale donations from the publishing industry and distribute them to the schools and programs in our national network.

We are excited to offer so many new Spanish and bilingual titles and hope you will not miss out on this great new selection of books!

 

Posted in Books & Reading, Education, Literacy, Teachers - Tagged , , , ,

Fairy Books and Ice Cream

May24
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

First Book brings 350,000 books to Vermont kidsThe First Book team just got back from Brattleboro, Vermont, where we distributed 350,000 brand-new books to kids in need. About 100,000 of those books went to local teachers and community leaders, and the rest were shipped out to schools and programs serving kids from low-income families across the country.

The books were donated by our friends at Disney Publishing Worldwide, and included quite a few fairy and princess titles.

“There were four of us, and we worked, worked, and worked,” said Katie Niersbach, who led the team in Vermont. “Fairy books are HEAVY.”

Carolyn Appleton, serving ice cream to First Book staffersThe distribution was made possible thanks to the support of the Vermont Foodbank, who provided warehouse space and volunteers, and also received a large number of books to distribute to the children served by their centers throughout the state.

Also richly-deserving of our thanks is Carolyn Appleton, a Vermont teacher and community activist who signed up over 80 new programs to help them get books from First Book and fed our staff and volunteers ice cream. (She’s also the mother of one of our staffers, but that only makes us love her more.)

So a big ‘thank you’ to Carolyn and to all our friends at Disney and the Vermont Foodbank, and an even bigger thanks to all the educators – in Vermont and everywhere else – who go the extra mile every day to turn their kids into readers.

Posted in Book Distributions, Books & Reading, First Book Partners, Teachers, Volunteers - Tagged , , , , , ,

One Million Books in Just Ten Days: The Final Reckoning

Apr26
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

One Million Books in Just Ten DaysRecently, 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.

Heather Denny, a Montana teacher, on First Book“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.

First Book volunteers in MilwaukeeThanks 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.

Posted in Book Distributions, First Book Events, First Book Partners, Teachers, Volunteers - Tagged , , , , , ,

One Million Books in Just Ten Days: Minneapolis!

Apr19
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

One Million Books in Just Ten DaysFirst 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.

First Book at the Hmong International Academy in MinneapolisWe 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.

Ten Days, One Million Books: First Book on ABC5 News in Minneapolis“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.

Posted in Book Distributions, First Book Events, Teachers, Volunteers - Tagged , , , , , ,

One Million Books in Just Ten Days: Seattle!

Apr18
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

One Million Books in Just Ten DaysFirst 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.

One Million Books in Just Ten Days: First Book in SeattleWe’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.

Posted in Book Distributions, Book Recipients, First Book Partners, Volunteers - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

One Million Books in Just Ten Days

Apr17
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

One Million Books in Just Ten Days

How First Book distributed one million books in ten daysUPDATES!

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.

Posted in Book Distributions, Volunteers - Tagged , , , , , ,

She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain

Feb06
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

Dear First Book,

A letter from Kiley to her friends at First BookThank you for giving us the books. We really like them. You guys have the best books ever because my little sister loves these books.

I like the ‘Nancy Drew Goes to Hollywood’ one. Your books are really fun to read and they’re funny. I also like ‘She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain’.

How many books do you give out every year? Is it over 100 or lesser? It would have to be over 100 because you have to probably send books to every school right?

Have you guys ever had any other books? Have you ever been to Hawaii?

Sincerely,
Kiley

Dear Kiley,

Thanks for your letter! We get lots of thank you letters here at First Book. We read every single one of them, but we don’t often get the chance to write back. But we liked yours extra, because you asked so many excellent questions.

First of all, good job reading to your little sister. Keep it up!

We distribute a lot of books every year. Way more than one hundred, as you guessed. Last year we distributed almost NINE MILLION new books to kids like you, all over the country. And this year we’re going to do even more.

Your teacher obviously cares a lot about you and her other students, so she signed up with First Book. We want to make sure every kid out there has new books of his or her own. So if you ever meet anyone who works with kids from low-income neighborhoods, tell them to sign up with First Book, and we can help them get the books they need.

As for other books, we have LOTS of books. We have over 2,000 books on the First Book Marketplace, a website where we provide books at affordable prices. (Including lots of Nancy Drew books; they’re some of our favorites too.)

We also have another program, called the National Book Bank, where our friends at publishing companies give us lots of other new books so that we can give them away to smart kids like you.

As for Hawaii, we have been! That’s one of the many places we go to give out books; we were there a couple years ago. We would love to come Thanks for writing! Your friends at First Bookback, though, because Hawaii is AWESOME. If we come back, maybe we’ll see you.

Thanks for writing to us, and keep reading!

Sincerely,
Your friends at First Book

PS – We liked your picture of the lady on the horse going up the mountain.

Posted in Book Distributions, Book Recipients, Books & Reading, Marketplace, Teachers - Tagged , , , , , , ,

We Couldn’t Have Done It Without You

Jan05
2012 Kyle Zimmer Written by Kyle Zimmer

We had a great year at First Book, thanks to the help of supporters like you. Together, we’re transforming the lives of millions of children in need by ensuring they have new books of their own to read.

I want to take a moment to say thank you, and tell you what’s in store for the year ahead.

First Book in 2011We’ve spent 20 years building First Book, creating a pipeline for getting books and educational resources to programs serving kids from low-income families. That pipeline is uniquely effective, connecting almost 30,000 local schools and programs across the country with new, high-quality books from every major publisher, all supported by committed donors, volunteers and corporate partners.

First Book has created innovative new models and proven that they work, and -– with your help -– we’ll be swinging for the fences in 2012, scaling rapidly upwards to bring desperately-needed supplies to the millions of children who are still waiting for us.

First Book in 2011We accomplished a lot in 2011 — distributing over 9 million new books, adding 7,000 more schools and programs to the First Book network, starting new local volunteer chapters in over a dozen communities, and launching a major upgrade to the First Book Marketplace that will provide local nonprofits and Title I schools with better access to books and other resources.

First Book in 2011But there’s much more in store. I’m excited about what we’ve got planned for the year ahead and the impact it will have, from dramatically expanding the size and scope of the network of schools and programs we reach to bringing the proven First Book model to places around the world. I’ll keep you updated as we announce new programs, partnerships and milestones.

Thank you so much for your continued support of First Book and the children who are counting on us. We couldn’t do it without you.

Kyle Zimmer
President, First Book

Posted in Book Distributions, Book Recipients, Books & Reading, Kyle Zimmer, Marketplace, Teachers, Volunteers - Tagged , , ,
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