Welcome to the Roads to Reading website. We have recently completed five years of the Bi-Annual Book Donation program for Small and Rural Communities. Since 2001, we have created five additional programs to serve organizations that are involved with Children’s Literacy. You can find detailed information about each program on its own page on this web site or you can find information about our newer programs under the “Other Programs” page. In addition to creating more avenues to bring books to children that are underserved, we have also initiated resources to assist literacy organizations.

Starting with our winter 2008 issue of Book Ends we have created a permanent page called “Books for the Taking”. The books listed on this page are books donated as gifts to your organization until the stock of books have been depleted. The books are in excellent condition, but we may have one or two copies of a title also the books have been around for a while and we need to move them out of our warehouse to make room for a new shipment of books. Also in the winter 2008 issue of Book Ends, we have we have included a short survey which we would like each organization that is involved with children literacy programming to complete. The survey will only take five minutes to complete. We are requesting this information so that we can improve the way we serve organizations that are involved in children’s literacy programming. Please e-mail your responses to survey@pwirtr.org

Moving on, last fiscal year we hit a record! We donated over 43,785 books to literacy programming organizations in the United States. The other record we set is that we spent over $9,038 in postage and freight cost in fiscal year 2006-2007. The $9,038 is over and above the shipping fees we have collected from organizations participating in our programs. The $9,038 reflects our freight cost for shipping materials and books incoming and outgoing. As the cost of freight delivery services rises because of raising fuel cost we will do everything in our power to keep the fee levels where they were last fiscal year. We are actively searching for funding to relieve the burden on our organization and the programs we serve. We know first hand how valuable every dime we can save in programming and for administration cost.

 

          There is also good news for organizations that did not qualify for book donations in the past, because operational budgets exceeded the limit established for our Bi-Annual Book Donation grant of $95, 000 per year. We have raised the operational budget eligibility limits for the Bi-Annual Grant to $150,000 per year. Organizations that want to apply for this program still have to meet the other grant guidelines and thresholds.  Now, here’s some not so good news. Effective immediately, if your organizations can not receive books through the Bi-Annual and the Director’s Discretionary Book Donation program in the same year, you may apply for either program, but not both, in the same year or consecutive years. You may still apply for books through the Books for Kids program and participate in special offers of books as long as your organization and program meet the guidelines of the particular program. We will provide a detailed explanation of our donation policies, under the “Book Donation Policies” section of the web site.     

            We have added a new feature to the web site, called Author’s Showcase. This page will feature some of the Authors who have donated their books or literacy materials to the Roads to Reading Initiative directly. The biographies presented will take you into the minds and lives of writers of children’s literature or issues that deal with children’s literacy. We also will offer one copy of the books that were written by our showcase authors to organizations as long as the supply lasts. If you are interested in receiving a copy of a book that you might find of interest for your organization, please e-mail us at booksforthetaking@pwi.org. We will only honor request that are sent to this e-mail address and while supplies last.

            In closing, we have had several requests for particular theme and subject matter books. It is important that we reiterate that we do not purchase books for special requested materials for the purposes of donation. Our book buyer, Maribel Lopez, has access to over 25,000 books titles that we can purchase on your behalf. We cannot purchase specifically requested books for donations. All of our donations are made from books generously donated by publishers of children’s literature. Any specifically requested titles or theme books will have to be purchased. We will try to obtain books you want for at less than 25% under the retail cost.

            Thank you for taking the time to browse our web site

                                    Kathryn Jenkins

                                    Executive Director and Founder