On January 29, the Hood River First Book Advisory Board awarded the following grants to these literacy programs: Oregon Child Development Coalition (Migrant Head Start), $1656 for 826 books for 212 children; Mid-Columbia Children’s Council (Head Start), $977 for 488 books to 127 children; Hood River Middle School, $336 for 168 books to 28 youth; and Hood River Valley High School, $156 for 78 books to 13 teen parents and their children.
Each student will get an average of 5 new books to keep for their personal use. The funds totaling $3,125 were from the Hood River Lions Foundation Trust, United Way of the Columbia Gorge, and individual donations from the local community.
First Book/Hood River is a local community effort whose mission is to promote literacy by giving books to low income children (birth to 18 years) who have few books of their own. Often the children/youth are involved in selecting the books that they would enjoy reading.
First Book/Hood River is part of the national effort at www.firstbook.org. Last September the national First Book program made some changes to their literacy effort.
The organization is now called “Team First Book.” Most of the national staff will work on awarding book grants and fundraising rather than working on developing new Advisory Boards.
Advisory Boards will now send funds to the national office when grants are awarded. Team First Book/Hood River will continue to operate under the assistance and approval of the national effort which is a 501(c )3 nonprofit organization.
Instead of awarding book grants once a year as the Advisory Board has done since they started in 2000, the Board will be awarding book grants about four times a year. The next group of grants will be awarded in September 2015. To help with this local literacy effort, call Nancy Johanson Paul at 541- 490-5330. Help is need in writing grants, fundraising, and making presentations to local service groups and businesses.
Donations can be sent to Team First Book/Hood River PO Box 221 Hood River, Oregon 97031.
“Roman Moretti, teacher at the Klahre House Alternative School wrote the following story after the school received a First Book grant in December 2014:
“At the Next Door Klahre House Alternative School, our students live in foster homes where they have minimal possessions, including books.
“Our small library, which consists of only six bookcases, allows students to borrow books; however, it is limited in its selection. Receiving grants from First Book has allowed our students the opportunity to choose their own books to keep forever.
“Recently, the students were allocated $22 each to purchase books through First Book. Some students were able to buy more than a dozen books with that amount.
“One student in particular has greatly benefited from this grant. He has spent most of his life living in various foster homes and has been in treatment programs since the age of 11. Now at 16, he has a great passion for reading and writing.
“Currently, he is spending most of his free time developing and writing a full-length science fiction novel, often approaching his Language Arts teacher before class for feedback and suggestions for improvement.
“This student has very few possessions of his own, but thanks to our recent book grant, he has now added over a dozen new books to his personal library which will not only allow him to strengthen his reading and comprehension skills, but also provide additional inspiration and guidance for his own writing.”
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