Dear Friend of Reader To Reader,

I hope you enjoy this newsletter about the Reader To Reader Book Project. Our success is very much due to your donations of books, postage money, and most of all your generous spirit. Please forward this newsletter and help us spread the word.

If you ever have cause to think that the need for books is so acute, and the problem so intractable that it is basically unsolvable, I am pleased to tell you that there is a solution. The solution takes lots of people coming together, including book donors, a book clearing house such as Reader To Reader, school officials, parents and students. This combined energy can move mountains and creates success stories where people thought there was no hope. I would like to pass on to you a letter we received from one such success story.

Dear David,

Thanks to Reader To Reader, Brent Elementary is one of the eight schools to have just completed their renovation and your organization was one of the donors who kick-started the entire library renovation effort at Brent Elementary.

The donations we received from Reader to Reader starting in October of 2004 helped create the excitement and positive energy around the library that resulted in our inclusion in the School Libraries Project. The newly renovated and restocked library was able to attract the attention of a top notch library media specialist/librarian who has continued the transformation of the library into the heart of the school. Thanks again for your support. The next time you're in Washington DC, please let me know and I'll arrange a tour of the new library at Brent Elementary School!

Regards,

Tessa Muehllehner
Brent Elementary
Washington, DC

I am so pleased that Reader To Reader provided some seeds that helped Brent Elementary achieve their goals. Now the children can better achieve their dreams.

Across the country on the Navajo Reservation, Window Rock High School received their first shipment. The first seeds for their dreams.

Dear David:

We received the first shipment of books today. It felt like Christmas! My students were so excited to open the books and get started reading. You have no idea the excitement these books have created around reading.

Thank you so much for your help and we can hardly wait to see what comes next!

Sincerely,

Candice A. Graham
Window Rock High School
Fort Defiance, AZ

Window Rock High received three boxes filled with young adult fiction, Native American literature, history and poetry, and a 2003 Encyclopedia Britannica. These are just the beginning as lots more will follow.

Also receiving their first book shipment was Orick Elementary in Orick, California. Orick is a small coastal town in the northernmost section Humboldt County. Humboldt County covers some 2.3 million acres, 80 percent of which is forestlands, protected redwoods and recreation areas. This beautiful area is considered the southern gateway to the Pacific Northwest, however, its economy has principally been derived from timber and over the years Orick’s mills were shuttered. Today, 75% of Orick Elementary’s students receive free or reduced price lunch.

Here is a note from them on their first shipment.

David,

We received our first box of books and they were great! Such a nice variety of books. We would appreciate any books you would like to send in the future if you would like. Our school is K-8th so any age group is fine. Fiction or non-fiction is good, our non-fiction is really out-dated. We could use some primary chapter books.

Like I said, we would appreciate anything. Thanks again so much!

Sincerely,

Paula Carr
Orick Elementary School
Orick, CA

Thank you to all who have supported Reader To Reader’s fall fund drive, and if you haven’t donated, it’s not too late to help us plant some more seeds!

Until next month,

Sincerely,

David Mazor
Executive Director
Reader To Reader
http://www.readertoreader.org
email: dmazor@readertoreader.org

Please help us with a tax-deductible donation by mail or online.

Mail books and monetary donations to:

Reader To Reader
Cadigan Center
38 Woodside Avenue
Amherst, MA 01002