Written by Brian Minter
That’s right. Thanks to everyone who donated to First Book over the holiday season – and thanks to a generous matching offer from our friends at Disney – First Book was able to provide 213,802 brand-new, high-quality books to schools and programs serving children from low-income families across the country.
Thanks to all our supporters who helped make this happen!
Written by Brian Minter
Together, we’ve put over 100 million new books into the hands of children who need them, and we’re counting on your support this holiday season. This year, thanks to our friends at Disney, the impact of your gift will be tripled!
Every $2.50 donated to First Book provides one brand-new, high-quality book for a child from a low-income family. And Disney has agreed to match every one of those books with two additional books, from now through the end of the year. Click here to donate.
As always, when you donate to First Book, you can be sure your money is being used wisely; 97% of donations to First Book go directly to provide new, high-quality books to kids in need. (That’s how we won our four-star rating from Charity Navigator.)
Thanks for being part of our work, and happy holidays from everyone at First Book!
Written by Brian Minter
If you’re like many of us, you grew up in a home filled with books, and so you understand how important it is for children to get excited about books and become enthusiastic, capable readers.
But there are 30 million kids in the United States who won’t have that chance, because most of them have no books of their own at home. At First Book, we’re working hard to change that, and with your help, we’re making a difference.
Click here to donate now, and help us get more books to more kids.
Every $2.50 you donate goes to provide a brand-new book to a kid in need. And your impact will go even further this year; through Dec. 31, our friends at Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.
Thank you so much for your continued support of First Book and the children we serve.
Written by Brian Minter
We hope you’re sitting down, because we have some big news. Today at D23, the annual gathering of the world’s Disney fans, in Anaheim, Calif., our friends at Disney announced that they were donating 8 million new books to First Book. And we will put every single one of those books into the hands of kids in need.
Eight million books is a lot of books. To give you some idea of just how many, if you laid them all end-to-end, you would definitely give up and go home long before you were done. To give you an even better idea, First Book distributed 8 million books altogether last year; Disney’s incredible donation will allow us to do a lot more in the year ahead.
To top it off, Disney is also donating $500,000 to First Book, which will help us cover some of the many expenses involved in getting all those books out to schools and programs serving kids from low-income families around the country.
So a big THANK YOU to our friends at Disney, from all of us at First Book, and from all of the kids in all of the 27,000 programs in the First Book network!
Remember, if you work for a school or program that serves children from low-income families, or if you’d like to help your child’s teacher or program leader get new books, sign up with First Book.
Written by Brian Minter
First Book’s National Book Bank team just got home from Pittsburgh, where they boxed, labeled and shipped 400,000 books to kids in need all over the country, from Jacksonville to Santa Monica.
Written by Brian Minter
We’re celebrating our 19th birthday at First Book this week, and to mark the occasion, our friends at Disney Publishing Worldwide have generously agreed to donate one brand-new book for each new follower we gain online. Those books will go to schools and programs serving kids from low-income neighborhoods across the country.
Being large-hearted, they are counting the followers we already have, so those of you who already follow First Book on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have done your part. But you can do more by forwarding this to your friends.
So, let’s do the math … as of this morning we have 6,743 fans on our Facebook page, 6,423 followers of our Twitter feed, and 10 followers on our Tumblr page (that one’s pretty new), which adds up to 13,176 new books. Woot!
But we know the scope of the problem – 30 million kids living in low-income neighborhoods in the U.S. alone, with severely limited access to books – and 13,176 books is barely a drop in the bucket. So spread the word and help us fill that bucket faster.
Tuesday marked the DVD release of Disney’s Bedtime Stories starring Adam Sandler, Courteney Cox and Keri Russell.
In December, we asked you to help us celebrate the film’s national release by posting a comment about your favorite bedtime story on our blog, with every comment posted generating one new book to a child in need through Disney.
On Monday, Disney and First Book celebrated the film’s DVD release – as well as National Reading Month – by hosting a Reading Relay in Los Angeles at the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center in Hollywood, CA. Cast members and celebrity readers including Jonathan Morgan Heit (“Patrick”), Laura Ann Kesling (“Bobbi”), Mikey Post (“Angry Dwarf”) and Madison Pettis sat on an oversized bed and read bedtime stories from noon to 2 p.m. Comic legend Stan Lee (pictured above) also participated. For every book that was read, Disney pledged to donate 100 new books to First Book.
Together our celebrity readers read 15 books during the two-hour relay, but Disney thought 1,500 books just wasn’t enough – they decided to donate 5,000 new books to children in need! Celebrities read from classic children’s books including Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Bring the magic to your home by picking up a copy of Bedtime Stories today!
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