Donate to First Book SF This Holiday Season

Give the gift that keeps on giving:

The Gift of Reading!
 

Spread holiday cheer that brings families closer, builds essential skills, and lasts a lifetime.

Our coalition of early literacy advocates works directly with families in need to build home libraries because kids who read succeed!

Our partnership with First Book allows us to purchase brand new books for less than $3.00 each. Your tax-deductible contribution to our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization will provide:
$25.00 donation = 8 books

$50.00 donation = 16 books
$100.00 donation = 33 books

$250.00 donation = 83 books
and will allow us to purchase and distribute incredible titles such as:


To Donate online:
Use the link at the top of our right hand sidebar or
click on the First Book Logo Below

(Please select San Francisco from the Gift Designation drop down list.)

  
To donate by check:
First Book - San Francisco, c/o Jude Deckenbach
368 Connecticut Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

Thanks,
Alex, Ande, Brian, Carla, Elmer, Irene, Jude, Kathy, Luanne, Lynne, Michael, Michele, and Michelle.

A Message from Kathy Katz

In preparation for our 20^th anniversary celebration I have been looking through our stacks and stacks of old photos and letters and endless computer files, reflecting on my many years with Children’s Book Project. What I realized is that It’s the people I’ve met that inspire me ‑— the endless stream of amazing people who work to improve our community. Their concern for Bay Area children and families. Their dedication to the never-ending struggle to keep the social service/nonprofit world alive. Teachers’ willingness to spend additional hours at CBP selecting books to improve their classroom and for their students to take home. Doctors bringing books to free clinics for their patients. Volunteers picking up books for homeless shelters and tutoring programs. And then there are all the wonderful people who collect the books that we can then distribute throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Over 100,000 books donated to us every year. Definitely something to celebrate!
Kathy CBP

 

5:30pm - 7:30pm, Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Latino / Hispanic Meeting Room, Lower Level

San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Let's Celebrate 20 Years of Children's Book Project!

Gentle Readers,

San Francisco's absolutely beloved Children's Book Project is 20 years old this year!

They are too humble to make much about it but we at First Book San Francisco, the San Francisco Early Literacy Network, and San Francisco Public Library are so appreciative of their exceptional work and the profound positive difference they make in so many lives that we are throwing them a party. Please join us and show them how much you love them. See you there, Brian

(Click invite to view at full size)

5:30pm - 7:30pm, Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Latino / Hispanic Meeting Room, Lower Level

San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Thanks for summer vacations and old friends...disproving yet again that in fact, you can go home again

I have just returned from two weeks of heat and humidity.
No, I wasn't in the tropics.  I was in the lovely Midwest.... my old stomping grounds.  As family lore has it, once I was old enough to know better, I said to my parents, "You mean we don't have to live here?"
The cold, endless winters and long, mosquito filled summers got the best of me.  I moved away when I went to college and never looked back.  Except of course for every year when I would return to visit family and friends.  As the years have passed, both my family and my friends' families have expanded.  I love hanging out with them all and I have to admit, a lemon lime arctic freeze from Dairy Queen is on my top ten list.

This year I experienced an added bonus.  A $5K bonus to be exact.  My friend from HS runs the RBC Dain Rauscher Foundation - the community foundation arm of RBC Wealth Management.  Martha, and RBC has always been a big supporter of the underdog.  When I told Martha about the number of children that First Book - SF LAB gives books to - these books are often the first to be owned by the kids - she immediately jumped on board.  When I got back to SF after my trip not only was the blessed fog waiting for me but so was the check.

Thanks Martha and RBC Wealth Management - you guys rock!  You've made so many kids so happy.

Tell Me That Story...

 

For  over eight years now, I have been a classroom volunteer at Up On Top (upontop.org), an after school program and summer program for low income children in San Francisco. One of my favorite parts of being in the classroom is helping the children choose from books that were obtained through a First Book grant. Many times it is through our program that children experience going to the library. So while they understand they can take the books from First Book home, they are surprised when I explain that they are theirs to keep and they don’t need to bring them back.

Youssef, a second grader, spent quite some time looking through many books before finding the ones that were “just right” for him. He asked me if these books were from me.  I said no, and showed him the bookplate that said “First Book.” I explained that several years ago, people got together and wanted to make sure that every child in the country had their own books in their homes. I said that I was just one of many people who donated money so that he could pick out books.

When I got to the classroom the next week, I sat down to help Youssef with his homework. We looked through the math, spelling and reading assignments, and he decided which he would tackle first.  Then, he turned to me and asked, “And then would you tell me that story again about the people that buy books for us, but don’t even know us?”

Warm regards, Luanne Schulte