Last week, volunteers from Barclays Wealth and Barclays Capital surprised students at Southside Elementary Museums Magnet School in Miami, Florida with a donation of 2,000 brand new books. The volunteers shared a very special afternoon of reading with the first-grade students of Southside; children crowded around their Barclays visitors, anxiously waiting to hear new stories and lobbying for the chance to be the next reader. After reading Bunny Money and The Berenstain Bears Lend a Helping Hand with the Barclays volunteers, students took home their very own copies of each title to read independently, share with siblings and friends or have the stories read to them again.
As part of a new partnership with Barclays Wealth, First Book will donate 2,000 new books to Southside Elementary for its children as well as its school and classroom libraries, where current and future students will enjoy them for years to come. In 2010, Barclays Wealth and First Book will distribute 10,000 brand new books in communities where Barclays employees work and live. We are proud to work with Barclays as the company follows it philosophy of banking on brighter futures, looking after local communities and supporting charity at work.