At its September meeting the Statesville branch celebrated its participation in Reading Is Fundamental – past and present, with a slide show that celebrates more than three decades of distributions by AAUW Statesville members: 30,000+ books to 10,000+ children every year since 1979, except 2011-2012.
The hiatus was the result of loss of federal funding to RIF, that paid for the books. But RIF didn’t give up. They secured corporate sponsorship, and this year, Macy’s is paying for our books. Our first distribution is Tuesday, Oct. 22, at N. B. Mills Elementary School, 1410 Pearl Street in Statesville.
RIF, the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the US, has a website for those who would like to learn more about its wide quest to encourage kids to read – it goes far beyond the books distributed by our branch, with stories, resources, and more. See http://www.rif.org