Be Part of History! Celebrate the Inauguration of the 44th President, Barack Obama, by Donating a Book like What Does the President Do? for D.C. Students and Schools.

Sallie Mae the nation’s leading provider of saving and paying for college programs, along with Building Hope, a D.C. based private foundation that supports charter schools and Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization have joined together to launch a nationwide book drive to celebrate the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

The goal of the “Reading Is Presidential” inaugural book drive is to collect more than 44,000 books for Washington, D.C. Schools in honor of the historic election of the nation’s 44th president.

For every $5 donation, you will provide one new book to a DC Public School child, as well as providing support to RIF’s national mission. The book drive runs from January 8 through Inauguration Day, January 20.

You can make one of the following donations:

• $50 for 10 books
• $25 for 5 books
• $10 for 2 books
• $5 for 1 book
• or donate another amount

This week, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s oldest and largest children and families’ literacy nonprofit organization, is celebrating Reading Is Fun Week, which was started in 1979 to mark the start of summer reading. The RIF website provides free resources to help families celebrate Reading Is Fun Week including a day-by-day children’s activity calendar for each day of the week.

Summer’s Just Around the Corner

Summer, huh? Well, I don’t know what’s going on in your school district, but this week is my children’s last real week of school. Next week it’s clean up time, field day, parties and preschool graduation.

Like me you may be in a slight panic thinking, What am I going to do with these kids all summer? Thank goodness there are such things as library summer reading programs, summer camps, visits to parks, zoos, and the rec center, and playgroups with friends.

Lucie will be attending a preschool summer camp three days a week. I have Nathan enrolled in several mini-camps at his school, including a book club and a writing club. He’ll also be learning American Sign Language and the principal (who’s also our town’s mayor) will be taking a group of kids to the state capitol building in Denver for a field trip.

Both kids will be participating in a week-long soccer camp and a career day at school. Plus, I’ve signed them up to help with a community service project that two teachers are supervising.

We’ll be doing some camping as a family, too, and before we know it August 18 – the first day of school – will be here. Then I’ll have two kids in school full time. I’m so exited!

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In a genius move by the Bush Administration, the President’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 eliminates the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program, which is the RIF book distribution program. Unless Congress reinstates funding for this program, RIF would be unable to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children. This would be devastating to the children in your community as well as the 4.6 million children and their families who receive free books and reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 20,000 locations throughout the U.S.

Please act now and help RIF build support for reinstating the funding by sending an e-mail to your members of Congress. You can also tell your friends online:
Facebook

• Become a RIF Fan
• Join RIF’s Group: Reinstate RIF’s Funding

MySpace

• Become RIF’s Friend
• Join RIF’s Group: Reinstate RIF’s Funding

YouTube

• Visit RIF’s YouTube Page
• Create and upload a RIF testimonial video

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