Kids Need to Read was the fortunate recipient of a generous $25,000 grant award from Thunderbirds Charities. The funds will be used to provide over 60,000 disadvantaged children and their families with vital access to books, interactive literacy events, bilingual educational materials, and family reading relief packages via the Page Coach, Kids Need to Read’s mobile conveyor of literary treasure.
The Page Coach was selected for funding because of its ability to reach areas throughout Arizona traditionally overlooked by many literacy programs, including low socioeconomic and remote areas where children sometimes live in so-called “book deserts”: neighborhoods and school systems so severely devoid of books and other reading materials that, without intervention, the cycle of illiteracy stands little chance of being broken.
“Ensuring that children have access to books is vital to breaking the cycle of generational illiteracy that exists in many impoverished areas of the state,” said Kids Need to Read co-founder Denise Gary. “The Page Coach makes it possible to deliver books to children living in areas where the need is greatest. We believe that books can provide children with the ability to dream of a life beyond their current challenges and to follow those dreams.”
Together, Kids Need to Read and Thunderbirds Charities are working to help children discover the joy of reading and the power of a literate mind.
This grant is part of the Spring 2021 cycle. View a list of all Recent Grantees.
