Sallie Mae, along with Building Hope and Reading Is Fundamental, have launched a nationwide book drive -- “Reading Is Presidential” -- to celebrate the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. The goal of Reading Is Presidential is to collect more than 44,000 books for Washington, D.C. schools in honor of the historic election of the nation’s 44th president.
“Access to books is crucial to developing readers,” said Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of RIF. “Research from the National Endowment for the Arts shows that there is a strong relationship between reading for pleasure and academic achievement. By providing D.C. children with books, supporters of „Reading Is Presidential‟ can help form lifelong readers.”
“For many of us, a weekend trip to the local bookstore brings new reading material for weeks, but for many elementary and high school students in our inner cities, this is not possible,” said Jack Remondi, vice chairman and chief financial officer, Sallie Mae. “We invite anyone interested in enriching the life of a District of Columbia student, perhaps the life of a future presidential candidate, to consider donating a book to this worthy cause.”
The nationwide book drive will benefit kindergarten through 12th graders at public, charter and independent schools in Washington, D.C. Inauguration attendees and others are urged to make a donation to RIF through the Reading Is Presidential campaign at http://donate.rif.org/presidential. Donations will be used to purchase new presidential-themed or classic books, as well as to support RIF's national mission.
Listen to a report on “Reading Is Presidential.”