I'm so excited to be doing my second annual Book Drive for a most worthy program - El Nido's Reading Corner!!  Last year we were able to raise over $2000 for the purchase of NEW books for the Reading Corner program AND that amount was matched at 50% by Usborne Books and More's generous book drive matching program!  

I'm back again asking you to consider supporting this incredible program.  The mission of the Reading Corner is to promote early literacy in families who live in the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods who are at or below the poverty level.  The program consists of a 10 week story/song group for parents and children 0-3.  Every week there is a theme and the families get to take home a book that is read that week.  This helps them to continue reading all week long as they build up their home library!

We all know how important early literacy is to giving kids a head start in school (and life!) and I am so proud to contribute to this amazing program.  They have a need for large quantities of new books that they can send home with all of the families in the program.  Our goal is to collect $3000 in donations so that we can provide the program with $4500 in books!  This is a big goal, but considering the size of the program, it's needed!!

I reached out to the Director of the program, Monika, and she shared with me that the program has DOUBLED since last year!!  That means approx. 80 families are now being served by this program!  Also, I am so thrilled that they now have options for books in Spanish AND English through Usborne.  Monika told me that having Spanish books for their families makes a big difference in parents being able to share their language and culture through reading, as well as increase linguistic skills in children!  Win-win!

Any amount that you can give towards our big goal is so appreciated by  the staff and families at El Nido's Reading Corner - learn more about the program here.