SUPER KIDS:  POWERED BY BOOKS

Dear District 54 Business Partner,

A significant body of research states that the more children read, the better readers they become. As part of our district’s Literacy Task Force, we’ve learned that experts recommend that every classroom should have 1,000 books in order to meet the wide range of abilities and interests of the children.  While some of our classrooms already have a significant number of titles, many do not. With this in mind, we are embarking on a campaign to fill the bookshelves in each of our rooms with 1,000 books and YOU can help!

We are asking our business partners to help in two ways. First, we ask you to make your business a collection site for new and gently used children's donated books. We’ll provide a small bin and some form letters announcing our book drive to your employees and customers. We’ll also arrange to pick up the books each month.

Second, we’d like to encourage your corporation to sponsor a classroom. We have calculated the cost of sponsoring one classroom at $2,500. This money would allow a teacher to purchase more than 500 books for her students. We’ll provide a list of recommended books that you can choose from and bookplates identifying you as the sponsor. Otherwise, if you’d like, we’ll do the shopping for you!

Each month, our district will focus on a different way to bring more books to classrooms. Our theme will be “Super Kids:  Powered by Books.” We’re counting on corporations, families, teachers and students to help us in our quest. Books can be donated to specific schools or to the district to be disbursed to needy classrooms.

Books are already rolling into our classrooms. We have purchased 100 books for each new teacher’s classroom. We have received some generous grants to add to the number of books at each school. We are on our way!

I hope that I can count on you to help this District 54 effort. I appreciate the support you have given our students and look forward to your participation in this worthwhile project. Together, we can encourage more student reading! If you have questions about this effort, or need further information, please contact Marianne Zito at mariannezito@sd54.org or 847-524-8798.