By Lori Cothrun
During National Library Week, literacy-themed clothing company Out of Print dedicated 10% of their sales to Kids Need to Read and raised an incredible $1,575 in order to fund a library in need. National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians, and to promote library use and support.
Out of Print contacted Kids Need to Read and expressed their passionate desire to fund a library in desperate need of books through a portion of their National Library Week sales. KNTR receives multitudes of applications each month from teachers and librarians alike pleading for new books to inspire their students. Often times the budget has been cut or books haven’t been purchased in as many as twenty years. Such is the case for Coffeeville Elementary School in Coffeeville, Mississippi. Student Teacher Ms. Carver wrote to Kids Need to Read:
Because the books in our library are heavily used with torn and missing pages, I feel that our students have lost their drive to read and do research from the books in the library. With new books, I believe the students would feel as if someone actually wants them to improve in their academic endeavors.
Out of Print and Kids Need to Read could not agree more.
The theme of the 2015 National Library Week campaign was “Unlimited possibilities @ your library®” and we intend to inspire Coffeeville students to find unlimited possibilities at their own library. Ms. Carver expressed her desire for the students to see what is going on in the world today, travel to new places, and experience exciting adventures. With $1,575 raised through the kindness of Out of Print and their customers, Kids Need to Read will provide Coffeeville Elementary with a treasure trove of new, inspiring books that will show the students the way to unlimited possibilities for their futures.
At the end of the school year, Coffeeville Elementary’s almost 400 students went home with a Highlights magazine, thanks to the Out of Print gift and the generosity of Highlights for Children. Over the summer, Kids Need to Read will fulfill its promise to provide the school with new and inspiring fiction and non-fiction books for the new school year.
Thank you to Out of Print for providing Kids Need to Read with the funding to make an elementary school’s dreams come true!
To learn more about the project, please visit Out Of Print’s fund drive web page.
