Distinguished Benefactor
Target
Target is committed to actively supporting education and recognizes the integral role reading plays in shaping a child's future. Because reading is the foundation for lifelong learning, Target supports childhood reading through a number of initiatives including sponsorship of the Library of Congress Letters About Literature national writing contest; support for book festivals across the country, including serving as a Distinguished Benefactor for the National Book Festival; partnership with the national non-profit organization Reach Out and Read; and support of United Through Reading, which helps military families stay connected during deployment through a read-aloud-by-videotape program. Since opening its doors, Target has given five percent of its income to organizations that support education, social services and the arts. Today that translates to $3 million every week. For more information, visit Target.com/community.
Charter Sponsors
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access, and voice services. AT&T Inc. supports programs that strengthen communities; improve access to information technology and technology training; advance education; and enhance professional-skills development. In 2006, AT&T contributed more than $101 million through corporate-, employee- and AT&T Foundation-giving programs. AT&T AccessAll, the company's signature philanthropic initiative, is a $100 million program that connects families and communities with technology that can improve lives. AT&T and the AT&T Foundation, the corporate philanthropy organization of AT&T, combine more than $1.8 billion of charitable commitment to communities across the country. For more information, visit www.corp.att.com/foundation.
The Amend Group
The Amend Group is a professional services firm who practices an innovative process known as Program Management; entailing comprehensive brokerage, project management, creative design and construction services. Founded in 1989 in Dallas, Texas by John Thomas Amend, a native Texan, The Amend Group specializes in managing complex real estate projects ranging from lease transactions of only a few hundred square feet to planned campus facilities stretching over two million square feet. Currently, The Amend Group is revolutionizing the entertainment industry, introducing an upscale, state-of-the-art bowling/entertainment center spanning the United States.
Promoting social awareness and fortifying the community it serves defines a keystone value of the mission of The Amend Group. The group’s initiative to serve and protect the quality of life for future generations represents a recognition and acceptance of challenge representing the firm’s goals in and out of the business arena. Mr. Amend is a board member of both the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and Children in Crisis. He has also served on Southern Methodist University’s Ed Cox School of Business Executive Board and the M.D. Anderson Board of Visitors. The company actively supports Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas and the Texas Book Festival, as well as dozens of other philanthropic organizations. The Amend Group remains firmly committed to promoting the importance and necessity of literacy through the joy of reading and is proud to continue its ongoing support of the National Book Festival.
The Washington Post
Each year, The Washington Post, through its community outreach programs, demonstrates its commitment to the Washington metropolitan area. As an active involved corporate citizen, The Post partners with a host of organizations that strive to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. These partnerships help to educate area children, provide basic health and human service needs, uplift spirits and spur creativity and imagination. The Post community outreach efforts focus on many segments of the region; however, supporting literacy and education is the cornerstone of our community relations initiatives. The Post is proud to be a Charter Sponsor of the Seventh Annual National Book Festival. For more information, visit www.washpost.com/community.
Patrons
AARP
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. AARP produces AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, its monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, its bimonthly magazine in Spanish and English; NRTA Live & Learn, its quarterly newsletter for 50+ educators; and the website, www.aarp.org. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, visit www.aarp.org/foundation and www.aarp.org/books.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, visit www.imls.gov.
The James Madison Council
The James Madison Council is a private-sector group created to serve as the Library of Congress' primary link to the business community. The first private-sector advisory body in the Library's history, the Council consists of public-spirited citizens determined to help the nation receive the full benefits of the Library's incomparable educational, scientific, technological, and cultural resources.
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) sponsors the National Book Festival Poetry Pavilion. NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts-both new and established-bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, visit www.arts.gov.
Contributors
Barnes & Noble
Library of Congress Federal Credit Union
The Library of Congress Federal Credit Union (LCFCU) is a member-owned financial services cooperative. For more than 70 years, LCFCU has maintained the "people-helping-people" philosophy integral to all credit unions that provide consumer financial services and community outreach.
In the 21st century, LCFCU has deepened its commitment beyond providing financial services. Our organization advocates the need for "family financial literacy." To support our wide range of money management tools and services, we offer many financial literacy resources including educational seminars, online tutorial resources and business partnerships that focus on counseling and educating members about fiscal fitness. Online, print and personal programs for children and youth complete our ability to champion financial literacy for the entire family. Home and Family Finance is both a print magazine and an online resource center. The online center is available in both English and Spanish as is Anytime Adviser an online suite of financial tutorials for adults. Googolplex, an interactive online site, and age-appropriate print newsletters are rich resources for primary through high school-age students. Guides to Independence are online courses for teens and young adults that provide free music downloads for course completions.
LCFCU membership is currently open to Library of Congress employees, retirees & contractors. In the District of Columbia all residents, employees, students, worshippers, businesses & other legal entities may belong. Family members of all the above groups also are eligible for lifetime financial benefits — including our "family financial literacy" outreach publications and online tutorials.
Marshall and Dee Ann Payne
NBA/WNBA
The NBA family wants to encourage kids to read and adults to love reading with children. Through NBA Cares, the league’s social responsibility initiative that builds on the NBA’s long tradition of addressing important social issues in the United States and around the world, a wide array of educational and reading programs are supported. Current and former NBA and WNBA players participate in read-alouds and other shared reading and online activities at schools, community-based organizations, at its Read & Learning Centers, in arenas, and wherever else it is possible to read! Through Read to Achieve, the league has distributed over 750,000 books and a million literacy magazines to schools, community-based organizations and kids.
During the first year and a half of NBA Cares, teams, current and former players, and the league office contributed more than 300,000 hours of hands-on service to the community, raised more than $50 million for charity and created 171 places where kids and families can live, learn or play. NBA Cares works with internationally-recognized youth-serving programs that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes including UNICEF, Reading Is Fundamental, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Charities Aid Foundation, Feed the Children and many others.
The NBA and WNBA are proud to have partnered with First Lady Laura Bush and the Library of Congress on the National Book Festival since its inception in 2001. At the festival, current and former NBA and WNBA players are featured in the Children’s pavilion.
For information on NBA Cares, visit www.nba.com/nba_cares.
PBS
Providing age-appropriate and diverse programming, PBS is home to the highest quality commercial-free content and multimedia learning environment for children, parents and teachers. In addition to educational television programming, PBS offers an array of resources including PBS Teachers (www.pbs.org/teachers), PBS KIDS (www.pbskids.org) for preschoolers, PBS KIDS GO! (www.pbskidsgo.org) for early grade-schoolers, PBS Parents (www.pbsparents.org) and Ready To Learn services (www.pbs.org/readytolearn) funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Only PBS has earned the unanimous endorsement of parents, children, industry leaders and teachers. PBS is a nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 355 public television stations, serving over 75 million people each week and reaching 99% of American homes.
Penguin Group (USA)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Books, The Penguin Press, Philomel, Plume, Puffin, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
Scholastic Inc.
For more than 85 years, Scholastic has recognized the importance of working with public, private, and non-profit organizations that share its mission and goals to improve the well being of children. Scholastic's total commitment to social responsibility and educational outreach is demonstrated by its diverse partnerships, which address today's most critical issues facing communities, with an emphasis on reading and literacy.
Scholastic social investment initiatives include:
Scholastic Book Grants Program - a corporate in-kind giving initiative that provides high-quality reading materials to children in need.
Lee y serás® (Read and You Will Be) and Read and Rise® - two initiatives that empower and engage families and communities to foster children’s literacy development.
Words Travel - the first national literacy and family strengthening program for incarcerated parents and their children. The mission of the program is to connect incarcerated parents with their children through reading books.
Scholastic My Time, A Box for Comfort and Fun™ - a "comfort kit" for children affected by disasters or crisis situations. Based on principles from the fields of child development and mental health, the kit features tools that can be used to help children handle stress and anxiety including: three age-appropriate books; a children’s magazine; a "make your own" book that allows children to express their feelings through writing and drawing; a pack of colored pencils; and information to support parents’ and family members’ efforts to help children cope with difficult circumstances. Scholastic My Time was created as a component of the company’s Rebuilding for Learning initiative, a long-term recovery effort aimed at supporting the restoration of the learning infrastructure in Gulf Coast communities. The initiative works to provide educational leaders, educators and families with comprehensive recovery resources.
For more information, visit www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/community.
US Airways
US Airways is the fifth largest domestic airline employing more than 36,000 aviation professionals worldwide. US Airways, US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express operate approximately 3,800 flights per day and serve more than 240 communities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. US Airways is a member of the Star Alliance network, which offers our customers 16,000 daily flights to 855 destinations in 155 countries worldwide.
US Airways and our employees are committed to supporting community organizations and initiatives to enhance the quality of life in the airline’s hub markets and focus cities. We believe by being a good corporate citizen we can contribute to the economic and social well being of our employees, our shareholders and our passengers. We recognize that true community stewardship must be reflected both internally through a supportive and dedicated employee base and externally with strong partnerships with nonprofit organizations that strive to meet critical needs. Our approach is hands on and collaborative and we seek to form relationships that combine our financial and in-kind resources with our human resources in the areas of health and human services, arts and culture and education and environment. For more information on US Airways Community Relations, visit www.usairways.com/corporategiving.
Friends
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities serves and strengthens the United States by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans through grants supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities. NEH is supporting the 2007 National Book Festival by funding participation in the Pavilion of the States by nine humanities-based state centers for the book. For information on NEH, visit www.neh.gov.
A Note of Thanks
C-SPAN2: Book TV
All weekend, every weekend, join Book TV for the latest nonfiction books and authors in biography, history, current events, the media, and more. Book TV brings you book festivals, author discussions, readings, panels, and book events from across the country. Book TV will once again televise events taking place at the National Book Festival. For information about Book TV on C-SPAN2, visit www.booktv.org.
Junior League of Washington (JLW)
For the fifth consecutive year, the Junior League of Washington will play a major role at the National Book Festival, providing more than 400 member volunteers to staff the event supporting the joy of reading and lifelong literacy.
In 1999, the Junior League of Washington established literacy as its focus area and stated, "The Junior League of Washington will strive to lead, coordinate, and support programs in the metropolitan Washington, DC area that enhance the literacy skills in the community". Supporting the National book Festival is a natural extension of the Junior League of Washington’s focus on literacy. This year, the Junior League of Washington members will donate over 50,000 hours of service to children’s, adult, and cultural literacy causes.
In its 95-year history, the Junior League of Washington has raised more than $4.6 million for community programs and has been a vibrant force in the lives of women and children in the national capital area. In May 2007, JLW awarded more than $68,000 in grant funding to literacy focused programs, contests, and scholarship opportunities.
In addition to awarding grants, the Junior League of Washington, through its "Books for Bright Futures" program, fosters literacy by donating over 1,000 books annually to community organizations. The Junior League of Washington also has a partnership with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, a branch of the DC Public Library through which it supports various projects the library offers to encourage reading among the District's children.
The Junior League of Washington, a nonprofit organization with more than 2,200 members, is committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. For information on JLW, visit www.jlw.org.