TUCSON REPORT 2024
In the past twelve months, we have promoted a number of children’s literacy projects reaching a variety of communities in the state.
We continue to sponsor our magazine subscriptions to nine organizations serving over 1000 children, including Our Family Services in Tucson, Los Niños del Valle preschool in Green Valley, The Arivaca Early Learning Center, the Bisbee Boys and Girls Club, the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz in Nogales, the Holsclaw YMCA, Intermountain Academy, Imago Dei Middle School and El Rio Health Center.
ARIVACA EARLY LEARNING CENTER – A Community Preschool in the small southern town of Arivaca. They serve 40-50 children ages 6 months – 5 years. We provided them with books, writing materials, upper and lower case sandpaper letters, magnifying glasses and notebooks for science journaling.
THE TOHONO O’ODHAM FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM – We provided over 325 books for children and adults to be distributed at 11 meeting centers throughout the Tohono O’odham Nation for their Family Literacy Program. Each family receives ten books, children and adult, which they will read together during a family reading time.
MANZO ELEMENTARY EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM – The early learning classes, with a total of 30 children in two daily sessions, received books for their read-at-home program.
AVIVA – is dedicated to helping children in the care of the Department of Child Safety. We provided books and corresponding stuffed animals for parents and children when they participate in family visits. We also participated in their Christmas Book Drive, donating over 200 books. Various sewing groups in Tucson make colorful “Bags for Books,” each holding a book and stuffed animal, to be distributed to youth in foster care throughout southern Arizona.
PIO DECIMO – We provided books and book sets with correlating stuffed animals from Kohl’s for their Early Learning Center. The program’s goals are to increase social and emotional development along with kindergarten readiness.
WORLD OF WORDS LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION – We provided funding for the Reading Ambassador Program, which is more than a book club for middle and high school students. Reading ambassadors take a deep dive into each book they read, and they also forge relationships with participating teachers and librarians in their schools. They plan and moderate author events where they learn about the publishing industry. Finally, they reflect on the whole experience in their podcast, WOW READS. There is no cost to the teens; the books, materials, and expertise are provided for free. And there is exit data showing that the program works!
LITERACY CONNECTS – We provided books for their three outreach programs: Reach out and Read, Reading Seed, and Stories that Soar.
ROADRUNNER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – We provided books for their school library, which has little funding and was in great need.
CATALINA HIGH MAGNET SCHOOL – We helped fund a program to give unaccompanied minors and refugees books and dictionaries to enhance their language learning.
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PHOENIX REPORT 2024
This year we supported a program called “Joy for Books.” The non-profit’s mission is to champion culturally diverse books for children. Our funding helped to purchase four 20-set titles for 3rd grade classroom libraries at Starlight Elementary in the Creighton District here in Phoenix.
New Life Center in Goodyear is an emergency shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. The center was in need of books for the recently remodeled library, especially books for young readers, which we were able to fund.
Madrid School in Phoenix asked for books for 7th and 8th grade readers. These students can’t find engaging reading material in their school library, which primarily serves students in younger grades. The books we funded were for a specific library collection for the older readers.
The librarian at Caesar Chavez High School received funding to support her book giveaway program, part of the reading incentive. Other activities include helping students get a public library card. Other area schools that received funds include Longview, Osborn classrooms, Mountain View book give-away, as well as Creighton School District book club and Sunshine Acres School. We also provided books for the Maricopa County Burn Unit.
Once again, we supported Southwest Human Development in the purchase of books used in pediatric clinics in Yuma. We also provided funding for “Raising a Reader” events in the Phoenix area. We are pleased that most of the titles were purchased through GBS Books, a local business.
Libraries, Ltd. donated $3000 to Chaparral High School’s Club RIF (Reading is Fundamental). These funds were used to purchase over 300 new books for students at St. Peter Indian Mission School near Phoenix. St. Peter Indian Mission School is in the process of adding a high school. In 2023-24 the first freshman class was welcomed, and in 2025, there will be two grade levels, freshman and sophomore. Libraries, Ld. board member Pat Heck founded Club RIF at Chaparral High, and has been overseeing book distributions at St. Peter’s School for many years.
