Fairview Elementary School in Sylva was awarded a card worth $1,000, and Kids in Action, an after-school program in Canton, received a gift card valued at $1,500.

First Book’s mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. “The organization provides an on-going supply of new books to children participating in community-based mentoring, tutoring and family-literacy programs,” said Nicole Thompson, campus advisory board manager at First Book. “The organization has distributed more than 50 million books to children in more than 1,300 communities throughout the United States.”

First Book at WCU is composed of members of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, a national organization with a philanthropic mission of improving the lives of children, and supported by WCU’s Center for Service Learning.

First Book at WCU also is expected to award $1,300 in book grants and distribute 3,000 books this year to low-income groups in Western North Carolina, said Glenn Bowen, WCU director of service learning.

"The partnership between First Book and WCU will bolster long-standing efforts to improve literacy in our community,” said Bowen. “It will open up a whole new world for many children.” 

For more information about the program, available through WCU’s Center for Service Learning, contact the program coordinator Charli Lehman at clehman@wcu.edu or (828) 227-7184.

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Last modified: Thursday, April 3, 2008