Inspiring Imagination
There are few pleasures in the world as great to me as reading. As a child, I read voraciously, and without limits—I read about Greek Mythology, and biographies of great men and women, and Japanese Folk Tales, and about Lost Treasures of the Incas, and Fairy Tales, all with equal fervor. I traveled to other worlds with Charles Wallace Murray, and grew up alongside Taran Wanderer. I learned about Robot Detectives, and Magic Swords, and Time Machines. But most importantly, I learned that we live in a world without limits. And that's the most important lesson of all.—James A. Owen, The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series
2008 Testimonial Archive
Donna Jordon
Branch Supervisory Clerk, Eagleville Bicentennial Public Library, Eagleville, Tennessee
December 30, 2008
The shipment of the 72 books arrived today. The books are absolutely wonderful and the kids will certainly enjoy them. I will put them out on display so it will draw their attention to the new selection.
Your organization is awesome and I can't thank you enough for your generous gift of these books.
Chris Naughton
Chairperson, Library Improvements Committee, B. F. Norton Elementary School, Cumberland, Rhode Island
December 12, 2008
Thank you so much! We cannot express how grateful we are to be receiving these books! These books will be a true asset to our library.
Thank you so much for donating them to us, as they will not only improve our library, but will truly enhance our students' education! Thank you for caring.
From all of us at B. F. Norton Elementary School and especially the Library Improvements Committee, THANK YOU!
Jan Landis
Library Chairperson, Paragon Science Academy, Chandler, Arizona
December 2, 2008
Thank you so much for this! I cannot tell you how much we appreciate this support. I will wait for your shipment and then have a dedication of our new library, complete with books for our shelves!
Your kindness and generosity is overwhelming.
Sheryl A. Morelli, MD
Informatics Physician, North Public Health Clinic, Seattle, Washington
December 2, 2008
We LOVE the books. THANK YOU. I will keep you posted of our reading program progress. Happy Holidays, your organization helped to make ours a good one!
Brenda Rodriguez
Librarian, Borinquen Bilingual School and Sport Development Center, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
November 28, 2008
Thanks, Thanks, Thanks!!!
We want to thank you all for your kindness. As soon as we received the books our students started reading them. …So [KNTR] receive a big hug.
Heather Powell
Librarian, Greensburg High School, Greensburg, Kansas
November 17, 2008
Just wanted to let you know we received the books that you sent. Thank you all so much!! We just want you all to know how very much we appreciate your donation and your kindness!! Thanks for thinking of us.
Chris Naughton and Laura Valentine
Chair/Co-chair, Library Improvements Committee, B. F. Norton Elementary School, Cumberland, Rhode Island
November 14, 2008
Thank you so much! We are extremely passionate about our library and our students, because it is so important. We are thrilled (absolutely ecstatic) that you want to send us new books!
Thank you so much for helping us make a difference in our students' lives by providing them with great books!
Stephanie Laymon
Reading Teacher, Dawn School, Chattanooga, Tennessee
November 14, 2008
We received our books!!! Thank you so much for the donation. We were thrilled to be included in your program.
Charmaine Thomas
Parent Volunteer, Rockin' Readers Book Club, Sonoran Science Academy, Tucson, Arizona
November 1, 2008
I really appreciate the donation. I've been reading them to the kids and they like them a lot. Thank you, thank you!
CTL Arthur Lowther
Cadre Team Leader, Wyoming Youth ChalleNGe Program, Guernsey, Wyoming
October 22, 2008
Sir,
Wanted to let you know we just received the books tonight! We are greatly appreciative and the Cadets are extremely excited to start reading them. Shortly we will be sending you a picture of the Cadets with the books. Again thank you so very much!
Cara Luptak-Peterson, LMSW
Child and Family Therapist, Austin Shelter for Women and Children, The Salvation Army, Austin, Texas
October 17, 2008
I received the books yesterday, and they are simply wonderful! I'm so excited to be able to share them with the children staying at our shelter. I appreciate you sending a wide variety of books to us, as we have children of many different ages here. We should be able to provide one to each child! Thank you so much for providing our children this wonderful gift that they may enjoy for years to come!
Betsy Neel
Program Assistant/Reach Out and Read Coordinator, Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, Seattle, Washington
October 16, 2008
You should know that the books you sent last week or so are going really fast. They seem to be a big hit, so that's great!
Rob Batchelor
President, River Road Santa Clara Volunteer Library, Eugene, Oregon
October 10, 2008
As the President of the River Road Santa Clara Volunteer Library, I just want to say “thank you very much” to the Kids Need to Read organization. Almost all of our books are donations from the community and it always seems the children's books are the “best loved.” The brand new books from KNTR are a welcome addition to our children's section.
Brenda Rodriguez
Librarian, Borinquen Bilingual School and Sport Development Center, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
September 29, 2008
Oh my God!!! You cannot imagine how thrilled we are…
…I thank God for this Blessing and for placing both of us…you and me in this beautiful path of helping kids. Thanks a lot to you, for your commitment on keeping “lit the candle of hope.”
Thanks for your big heart!! I am sure that the volunteers of Kids Need to Read organization are very, very proud and engaged with all the organization's objectives. KNTR really is an example of how to be a facilitator in making true the dream of others.
Most important, we will count with an endorsement of an organization who really cares about building strong foundations for our kid's future.
…thanks, thanks, thanks and Blessings to you and your staff.
Big Hugs from the Caribbean!
Charmaine Thomas
Parent Volunteer, Rockin' Readers Book Club, Sonoran Science Academy, Tucson, Arizona
September 16, 2008
What a fantastic organization this is; thank you for playing such an important role in the lives of children.
Melody L. Polson
Eighth Grade English Teacher, R.O. Gibson Middle School, Las Vegas, Nevada
June 30, 2008
I made it in and picked up my box of delights today. Wowiewowowow!!! It is one thing to see the list… another entirely to see the stacks of titles right in front of you.
I'm soooo excited. I've passed on our correspondence to my principal and the assistant. They are enthused because our state is in a rather deep budget crunch and the school won't be getting much of what we had hoped at the end of the year. For us, it won't be as bad as for many – our numbers are actually expected to decline due to re-zoning. For others, it is gonna be a tough year.
[Kids Need to Read] – you've shined a light where one was not expected.
Thank you!
Hillary Chisholm
Reach Out and Read Coordinator, Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, Seattle, Washington
May 21, 2008
On behalf of the Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, it is my pleasure to thank you for the books you so generously purchased for our clinic. We were delighted to receive the shipment of the 300+ books valued at over $2,000, and our pre-teen and teenage patients are thrilled by the addition of such unique and interesting titles to our collection!
As you may know, the Reach Out and Read program plays an important role in pediatric clinics across the nation. In addition to providing every child who comes in for a well child checkup with a new book, the program gives medical providers an opportunity to talk about reading with patient families, helps children from low-income families build their own home library, and helps instill a love of reading among youth. Through the national Reach Out and Read program, clinics like ours receive limited funds to purchase books for children ages 0–5. Here at Odessa Brown, however, it is our goal to be able to provide books to patients of all ages, which is why we continually seek additional funding and donations of new and used books to supplement those purchased with official Reach Out and Read funds. By enhancing the selection of titles we are able to offer to our elementary school-aged and teenage patients, the books donated by Kids Need to Read will help us engage kids of all ages and interests in reading!
It's inspiring to see Kids Need to Read getting out in the community and making such a positive difference already while the organization is still in its developmental stages. We're excited to see your organization grow and continue to make a difference in the lives of children in the future!
Thanks again for your generous donation. We wish you the best of luck obtaining your non-profit status, and hope to stay in touch!
Ann Brennan
Seventh and Eighth Grade Teacher, Potter Junior High School, Fallbrook, California
May 14, 2008
The books arrived on Friday, thank you! My students are devouring them already — I thought you'd like to hear this quote from one of my most reluctant readers, who is reading one of the Actionopolis books: “Dude! I'm reading for the first time in my life!”
Good thing it's a series!
THANK YOU!!!!!!
Sharon Navarro
Librarian, Moreno Valley Public Library, Moreno Valley, California
May 13, 2008
We received the 25 books today! Thank you so much. They are in processing as we speak. We are putting a book plate in that reads: Donated by Kids Need to Read.
Thanks again!
The Students of Sutro Elementary School, San Francisco, California
April 10, 2008
Dear Kids Need to Read Foundation,
Thank you for all the wonderful books. We really appreciate it, and will learn a lot from reading them. Everyone in our school will be so happy that we got new books in our library. I wish that we could repay you with something. All these books must be very expensive. Thank you for donating!
Sincerely,
Karen
Dear Kids Need to Read Foundation,
Thank you very much for donating books for our school library. We really appreciate it. We will use the books nicely. We won't do bad things to them. It really helps our school library because other people can read it in our school if other children are interested. We will all read them and will not waste them. This means a lot to our school because reading is important. Kids can learn a lot by reading.
Donating books helps our school a lot. Thank you for your kindness. You are very helpful. We hope you donate more books to help more children learn how to read.
Sincerely,
Stephanie
Dear Kids Need to Read Foundation,
Thank you for the library books that you gave to my school. I appreciate your kindness and that you gave us a lot of books. I wish we could repay you for all this stuff. Every kid in the school will love the books. You guys helped the whole school because now we can read more books instead of our old ones. Now you made our school a little more special. Now we don't have to buy books for a little while because you donated many books. I just can't wait until I read the books you sent us.
Sincerely,
Alexander
Dear Kids Need to Read Foundation,
Thank you for donating books to our library. I am excited to read the books because it is important and sometimes fun to read. I might even learn some things. I don't know the titles of the books you donated, but I am grateful. We appreciate your donations and will try to take care of them.
That was really thoughtful and nice of you to donate some books or a lot of books to us. We don't really get a lot of book donations, so that is why we are so happy.
Sincerely,
Melanie
Dear Kids Need to Read,
Thank you for donating the books to our library. I can't wait to read all the books that you donated. I know I'll read them because I like to read. We really appreciate you for donating all those books. I think that kids need to read books, because books are very important.
Sincerely,
Jun Wan
Dear Kids Need to Read,
Thank you for donating the books to our library. I can't wait to read them because they sound like interesting books. I can't even imagine all of the books I'm going to read. There will be even more books that I can check out from the library. I know many students will enjoy reading the books you donated to our school's library. We really appreciate your donation.
Sincerely,
Claire
Dear Kids Need to Read,
Thank you for giving us those books. The books you gave us are great. We are very happy you gave them to us. We are thankful for your help. Our school is lucky we have some books from you. Our school is lucky that we have some science fiction books now.
Thank you for the books. Our librarian is labeling them and putting them on the shelf now. We are happy you gave us some new things to read. Thank you for the books.
Sincerely,
Terrence
Dear Kids Need to Read,
Thank you so much for donating the books to our school. We really needed them because we don't have a lot of cool, interesting books like those. I cannot wait to start reading one because they look really great. Thank you again for the wonderful books!
Sincerely,
Jacob
Nicole Sette
Media Specialist, New Brunswick High School, New Brunswick, New Jersey
April 7, 2008
I'm so happy to finally have some age-appropriate fiction for students to read – I've already started processing them and getting them shelf ready.
Thanks again!
Kristina Kim
Fifth Grade Teacher, Sutro Elementary School, San Francisco, California
April 5, 2008
I just got the box on Wednesday!
Thank you so much. The Librarian, Molly, is thrilled with the fact they are hardback books. They will surely last longer than any paperback we have in stock.
The titles are amazing! And the kids in my class were ogling them on Thursday, asking to borrow them already!
Thank you, thank you!
Katelyn Castleberry
Executive Director, The Friends of The New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, Louisiana
January 30, 2008
I have just returned from another successful book sale in some very ugly weather. I have another thanks to address to you and your organization. We have a small dollar amount that we simply must maintain as the end result of our sales. This dollar amount is the smallest amount of money that we can operate on. Today our volunteers were able to bring many more of [the Phoenix Book Company] donations out to the sale. It was a rainy, windy, cold day. Usually no one even comes out to buy books in this weather, but we had many attendees due to the few selections of the books that they were able to see last week. (And I had been telling everyone about the books, as we were sorting them.) We passed our minimum sales quota on a day when we might not have been able to make half that if we did not have the buzz that these books created.
I wish you could see the shelves in the main library's acquisition department. They kept so many of the selections. They were beside themselves!
Our volunteer who helps the most with our community outreach programs came back today and took 2 more crates to shelters and community centers.
You have given us so much abundance that we have to share it with New Orleans and even further into Louisiana.
People think that time has erased the challenges that Katrina posed to the Gulf South. Time has helped us heal but every day is a challenge in this environment. We have to work harder than ever to maintain our schools, libraries and culture. We are at a pivotal time in history where every step affects the future. This gift has infused us with bounty, kindness and most importantly something to share.
Thank You and everyone who helped make this possible for so many of us. What a joy it is to share these books with everyone. They are of the best quality.
Thank you so much.
Katelyn Castleberry
Executive Director, The Friends of The New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, Louisiana
January 29, 2008
We received the book shipment last week. We were blown away. This is by far the best donation that either the Friends or the New Orleans Public Library has ever received.
We cannot really quantify how extremely helpful this shipment will be to both the Friends and the Library. The donations were so top notch that we were able to fill gaps in the Library's collections across the city. Also our book buyers were amazed at the quality items we were able to bring to the book sale. We also have a large number of neighborhood centers, shelters and organizations that we were able to drop off books to. Often these places receive little if any donations of reading material and if they do, it is usually of a low quality. We feel very fortunate to have been thought of by your organization, and have tried to begin spreading the generosity of the donation throughout the city. It is not often that one donation can help us impact so many different people spread out so far.
If in the future the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library may ever be of any assistance to you and your organization, please let us know. You have really given us a tool to make a large difference to a great number of people. Thank you so much.
We also enjoy receiving your newsletter; please keep us on your email list so that we may keep up with your happenings.
Thank you.
Testimonials Archives
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008