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A lot of our success at First Book is dependent on the great people that we are able to connect to whether it is a nonprofit leader, educator, foundation or strategic partner.  I’m fortunate enough to spend most of my day connecting to great nonprofits, school systems and more.  These partnerships are vital in our quest to one day provide every child in the country with brand new books.

I recently connected with Shereen Williams, the Director of Community Partnerships for DC Public Schools.   With her help we are connecting all 102 Title I schools in metro DC to First Book’s systems and resources.  In addition to getting the schools registered thirty four schools will be given an initial credit on the First Book Marketplace thanks to Comcast’s $12,000 donation to help provide more books to kids in DC.

To celebrate this great partnership I attended an event at Eliot Hines Middle School near RFK stadium with First Book’s EVP, Chandler Arnold.  We both love events that allow us to meet some of the kids that the books go to and shake the hands of the great leaders that are working on behalf of the kids to find resources like First Book.  It was a great event with top executives from Comcast, Chancellor Michelle Rhee and leaders from Eliot Hines MS.

Besides the smiling faces of the kids that got to select two books a piece at the end of the program I got to meet the great new librarian at the school. As she thanked all of us, she got a little choked up and so did I.  The fact that she is soon going to be able to fill the shelves in the library with thousands of more books seemed like an impossible task just a few months ago, but thanks to DCPS, First Book and Comcast coming together, the kids will soon be able to check out more than one book at a time.

Thanks for all that you do teachers, librarians, principals, corporate executives and other local leaders.  When we all come together it allows First Book to move our mission forward and place more books into the hands of kids in need.