First Book-Syracuse University provides 2,646 new books to local literacy programs serving children in need

First Book-Syracuse University provides 2,646 new books to local literacy programs serving children in needDecember 03, 2007SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

A total of 2,646 new books will be given to five literacy programs that serve Syracuse children in need through First Book-Syracuse University: ARC of Onondaga-Parkside Children’s Center, Bicycles and Ideas for Kids Empowerment (B.I.K.E.), the Consortium for Children’s Services, the Determination Center, and P.E.A.C.E. Inc. Family and Community Development. Each child will receive one book per month for six months, which enables the children to start their own home libraries they can share with siblings and families. They will also receive a bookplate on which to place their names celebrating the importance of book ownership.

“The book grant we received from First Book-Syracuse University will enable our program to provide new books to each child that we serve,” says Fanny Villarreal, director of PEACE Inc. Family and Community Development. “The children’s faces light up when they discover they can keep these books and take them home to read over and over again with their siblings and families.”

First Book-Syracuse University, part of the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public & Community Service literacy initiatives, has been distributing books to programs serving low-income children since 2001.

First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. In neighborhoods across the country, First Book Advisory Boards unite leaders from all sectors of the community to provide books to children in literacy programs, shelters for battered children, housing project initiatives, soup kitchens, after-school programs and other community-based efforts reaching children living at or below the poverty line. In the past three years, First Book has distributed over 20 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide.

For more information about First Book, or to make a donation to help children in need, visit http://www.firstbook.org.