PRESS RELEASE

CHILDREN COLLECT THOUSANDS OF BOOKS FOR COMMUNITY
From the beginning of the 2015 school year to the present, Read to Learn Books for Free has distributed over 113,307 books to the children of our community.

Read to Learn Books for Free works on two community-based levels: young children are able to select books for free from 40 bookshelves found in a variety of locations around the county, such as juvenile court to community service offices, clinics, park and community centers. Because the books fly off the shelves, they are restocked weekly. To meet the demand of stocking 3,500 books per week, children’s books are always being collected.

To donate books, visit www.MiamiBookFair.com to find a Read to Learn Books for Free donation bin closest to you.

During the past year, our community has truly come together to share the love of reading by providing children from our community the opportunity to select and keep free books from the Read to Learn Books for Free bookshelves. These books have been provided by so many others in our community via book drives, special events and personal donations. Read to Learn Books for Free, a literacy initiative sponsored by Miami Book Fair and The Children’s Trust, has been diligently collecting books to insure that all kids in our community have free access to books, and to the joy and adventure of walking through windows and doors made possible by reading.

Read to Learn Books for Free would like to say thank you to the children of Temple Beth Am, Ponce de Leon Middle, Cushman, Southwest Miami High, Casa Dei Bambini Montessori, Palmetto Elementary, Gulliver Academy, Carver Middle, Palmer Trinity, Leewood K-8 Center, and Glades Middle School, who together have collected over 6,000 books during the 2015-16 school year.

Special thanks to Limmud Miami who, during a one-day book drive, collected 285 children’s books; to the members of the Jack & Jill Club who collected 231 books; to Ponce de Leon Middle school student Braulio Gonzalez and Librarian Mercy Mont-Ros for collecting 1,717 books; and to Anjana Mishra, who along with her two children Shreeya and Shaunak of Palmer Trinity and Leewood K-8, have since 2014 collected 5000+ books. Hats off to Etta Gold, Librarian for Temple Beth Am for collecting over 580 books in just a couple of months, and much gratitude to Miami-Dade County Public Schools for its donation of almost 4,000 books from its warehouse.

Much appreciation goes out to the Miami Alumnae Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, a women’s fraternity, who received a $1,000 grant from the Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation. With that money, Read to Learn Books for Free was able to purchase 236 bilingual books in Spanish and French. Said Kirstie Bray, “Because the goal of the Foundation is to partner with alumnae chapters to support projects that support the Fraternity’s educational and philanthropic efforts, we felt that Read to Learn Books for Free would make a good service project for our alumnae chapter.”

Read to Lean Books for Free is so grateful to Publix Supermarkets and TD Bank for their donations: the staff of Publix collected over 9,000 books for their drive, and TD Bank donated over 6,000 books purchased from First Book. We are continuously thankful to a variety of organizations for hosting on-going books drives: to Miami-Dade Public Library for collecting more than 5,600 books; to the City of Coral Gables for spearheading an on-going book drive and thus far collecting over 700 books at the Coral Gables Youth Center; to the Miami-Dade Police Department for collecting 400+ books; and, to Florida Memorial University for collecting almost 400 books.

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