Mary Ann Cummings of Vancouver, Canada is the type of person I admire. She had an idea for a nonprofit enterprise -- collecting "gently used" children's books from parents who have plenty, and putting them into the hands of less fortunate children. She spent months starting up her outfit with full fervor. Her passion soon drew a cadre of enthusiastic volunteers who now spend hours per week promoting, collecting, sorting, re-boxing and putting books into the hands of appreciative youngsters. The local school board helps direct her to the schools with children most in need.
Thanks to Mary Ann and her team, "Books for Me" (http://booksformevancouver.org/) has become a busy, busy outfit, and thanks to them, many a child who isn't used to the privilege of owning a book have received some of their very own.
Keen Readers was honored to contribute roughly 100 to Books for Me last month (many of them donated to us by the generous children's authors at www.cwill.bc.ca) , and here's a photo of Mary Ann opening our box.
As our regular readers know, we do this several times a year. By going through Books for Me on this round, we got to know Mary Ann and her crew, who reignited our own passion for promoting youth literacy.
Thanks, Mary Ann and team, for all you do!
-- Pam Withers, Keen Readers co-founder