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This spring, Media Specialist extraordinaire- and Books for Keeps enthusiast- Melissa Solomon conducted a quick survey with her 3rd through 5th grade students at Fowler Drive Elementary. Melissa wanted to know about the students’ reading habits and where they got the bulk of the books they read throughout the year.

Books for Keeps has been serving Fowler Drive Elementary School since becoming an official 501c3 in 2011, and to say that Fowler is special to us is putting it lightly. Each year, our experience at Fowler is one of joy and excitement, as students who have been in the program since kindergarten come to the media center to pick out their 12 books.

So imagine our joy when we saw the results of Melissa’s poll!!

It is incredible to us to see these numbers. This shows that for summer reading needs, most students say the majority of their books come from Books for Keeps. And that is exactly why we do what we do! We know that when school is out for summer, access to reading materials is one of the largest needs of students in the communities we serve.  We’re proud to see that students are taking the books they receive from Books for Keeps and reading them all summer.

To learn more about how you can help make our program a success year after year, click here.

Books for Keeps was recently highlighted in a unique type of convention- and exhibit for exhibitors!

As part of this spotlight on literacy and Books for Keeps, the Atlanta-based exhibit design company Exhibitus is sponsoring Books for Keeps at the grade level, $2,500 – in part through donations collected from attendees at a recent Las Vegas convention. To learn more about becoming a sponsor, visit our sponsorships page.

Read the full press release here:

Exhibitus Presents a ‘Re-Imagined Fairy Tale’ at EXHIBITORLIVE

Through the Power of Storytelling, Attendees Will Experience How Combining Design, Engagement and Measurement Creates Exhibit Success

ATLANTA (PRWEB) February 15, 2018 — At EXHIBITORLIVE 2018, Exhibitus will invoke the power of storytelling to introduce a design journey through an Enchanted Forest that encompasses all aspects of an exhibit program. By ‘re-imagining’ a well-known fairy tale, the company will demonstrate how, with focus and guidance, the end of the story can be even more successful than originally anticipated.

“Our customers deserve an amazing exhibit experience at every event,” said Brad Falberg, President of Exhibitus. “It’s our job to continuously guide them through the design process so that they have the branded environment, the interactive engagement and the measurement capability needed to keep their program on the path to happily ever after. We are looking forward to sharing details of these ‘chapters’ of the story with ExhibitorLIVE attendees.”

EXHIBITORLIVE, an industry-leading conference and expo for trade show and event marketing professionals, will be held February 25 – March 1, 2018 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

In addition to the comprehensive design journey, Exhibitus is proud to feature the exhibit design work of Phoebe Mathius, a graduate of the Technology, Art and Design program at Bemidji State [...]

It is with much sadness that we share the news that Program Manager Louis Crow is stepping down from his role at Books for Keeps after this spring. While we – staff, board, and volunteers – are sad to see him go, we are excited for his next opportunity.

Books for Keeps is working now to identify a new program manager who can oversee core functions of the Stop Summer Slide! book give-away program: overseeing inventory management of more than 100,000 books in the Books for Keeps warehouse, working with the Books for Keeps team to identify sources for new and used books, managing volunteer sessions, and coordinating schedules and other details with partner schools.

A complete job description can be found here.

Applications will be reviewed immediately, and will not be accepted any later than March 26th at 5 p.m. Interviews will be conducted between March 28th and April 11th.

The organization is seeking someone who can make a soft start with the organization during spring book distributions. The candidate will train, for pay, with staff and volunteers during at least three sessions (typically between two and four hours each) between April 23rd and May 17th, and to officially begin work full-time in June. Applicants should send cover letter, resume, and three references by email (please note “Program Manager position” in the subject line) to info@booksforkeeps.org.

What a whirlwind year-end! It was a reminder for us that setting goals – ones that even seem ridiculous at first – can make the once-impossible seem like no big deal.  

In November, we announced our biggest year-end fundraising goal ever: to raise $66,000 in the final eight weeks of the year. It was almost $20,000 more than what we raised in at the end of 2016. We knew this would be a stretch goal – but the number was an important one to put out there. Books for Keeps is trying to add 2,200 children to our program in spring 2018. That big, scary $66,000 goal represented the sponsorships needed just to increase our program size (to say nothing of sustaining our program at existing schools!)

Two weeks before the end of the year, it looked a little dreary. Donations slowed way down in the week before Christmas. We prepared ourselves for falling far short, but congratulated ourselves on a terrific year-end. We would at least match the 2016 totals – a high-water mark for us. (Heck, just in October, we learned we would be getting our biggest grant ever – a $35,000 commitment from the Riverview Foundation to help fund our program in Elbert County.)

However, we totally underestimated the generosity of our community – a growing community of people from the new counties we serve – like Elbert – and from our wider community of supporters from as far as Texas and California.

So, it’s with much excitement that we share the results of our 2017 year-end campaign –

:::DRUMROLL:::

With the final sponsorships, grants, and individual checks that came in the mail just today, Jan. 4 – post-marked December 29th and December 30th, we raised an [...]

If you haven’t been following our website closely, you may have missed some of our newest- and recently renewed- class-level sponsors for 2017! Though we can never truly express the extent of our gratitude, we are going to give it a shot.

After wrapping up our biggest round of distributions ever – with 74,000 books distributed to 6,200 children in four counties – we find ourselves reflecting on those individuals and companies whose support is so important in helping us reach those children. Our program – from the early days through this latest round of expansion – has been built on those people who step up and give a dollar to help buy a book, or $30 to sponsor a child, or $600 to sponsor a class.

This post will highlight the class sponsors that came on board or renewed in 2016-17 to help make this year’s program a reality. Look for more posts soon about our grade-level sponsors and some of our very special school sponsors!

Most recently, we’ve been honored to have Redfin as our newest class-level sponsor. Redfin reached out to our executive director, Leslie Hale, directly to learn more about how they could help Books for Keeps accomplish our goals – after being referred by an Atlanta-area Redfin agent. Welcome to the BFK family, Redfin!

Other class-level sponsors that renewed or came on board within the last program year:

IDology
Willard & Patti Hale
Sharon Jenkins
Lois & Lucy Lampkin Foundation
Kay Cook
JOMA Construction
Diane & Frank Klonowski
Coca-Cola Enterprises
Leon Farmer and Company
John & Katie Goette
Classic City Orthodontics
Sheneka Williams
Georgia Power
The Winthrop Foundation of Athens, GA