Kids Need to Read Auction, Dolly's Imagination Library

While looking through Beth Revis' Giveaway, I came across her post about Kiersten White joining the auction for Kids Need to Read. Since I had just blogged about the importance of kids reading, I snooped around to get the jist of what they were talking about. What I found was an awesome cause with an amazing front man! I. <3. Nathan Fillion. Even more so since he's supporting this organization.

From the Kids Need to Read website:

Kids Need to Read is a national nonprofit foundation that promotes childhood literacy and addresses the crisis in library funding that currently exists in the United States. Providing inspiring books and literacy programs to schools, public libraries, juvenile offender facilities, dropout recovery programs, urban afterschool organizations, and special education classes, the foundation works to develop a lifelong love of reading and an awareness of social responsibility in all children.

The Kids Need to Read book donation list features the best of contemporary reading material to appeal to the sensibilities of today's youth, including the most reluctant of readers. Whether it is giving free comics and Highlights magazines to homeless children or providing the first books to a charter school with no library, Kids Need to Read focuses on one goal – getting kids to pick up something to read and never wanting to stop.

This organization is right up my alley. I'm going to be looking into it even further and see how it goes. In my opinion, there can't be enough programs like this. Visit them at http://www.kidsneedtoread.org/ or http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/

Locally, Dolly Parton has one of the top programs with her Imagination Library that provides an age appropriate book to every child under five years old.

They list how it works on the site:

A community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.

From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home. You can find out more of the operational details on other pages in this website – so what are you waiting for! Hundreds of communities are providing books to hundreds of thousands of children.

I searched for affiliates in my area and got several responses. I encourage everyone to check these organizations out and support the causes. Reading could be the key to many of our children's futures. :)