Neologisms (from Greek néo-, meaning ‘new’ and logos, meaning ‘speech, utterance’) – can do all sorts of jobs. But most straightforwardly new words describe new things. As such they indicate areas of change, perhaps of innovation. They present us with a map, one that can redefine what we know as well as revealing newly explored areas; new words for new worlds.
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What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) all about? Companies appear to be adopting new attitudes and activities in the way they identify, evaluate and respond to social expectations. Society is no longer treated as a ‘given’, but as critical to business success. In some cases this is simply for the license to operate that social acceptability grants. In others, companies believe that favorable evaluations by consumers, employees and investors (who are, after all, members of society) will improve business performance.
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To kick-off First Book’s new charitable partnership with the world’s largest pretzel company Auntie Anne’s, First Book staff attended the 15th Annual Auntie Anne’s C.A.R.E.S. Benefit Golf Tournament on Monday, July 12th. The tournament, hosted in Hershey, Pennsylvania by the Auntie Anne’s C.A.R.E.S. Committee (Community Action Requires Employee Support) , benefitted First Book as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster and Christ’s Home for Children (Lancaster County).
More than 300 participants, consisting of vendors, suppliers, employees, and friends of Auntie Anne’s, teed off at the Hershey Country Club and Hershey Links Monday afternoon. First Book staff enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day talking and sharing their mission with the C.A.R.E.S. Committee and their terrific colleagues. Unfortunately, as the afternoon rolled on, the clouds rolled in. But while the greens may have been dampened, spirits were not, and the good times continued that evening at dinner. The dinner celebrated Auntie Anne’s ongoing dedication to community giving.
During dinner, Auntie Anne’s presented First Book with a generous gift of $32,500. An additional $32,500 was split between the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster and Christ’s Home for Children. First Book President, Kyle Zimmer, was on hand to accept the check. Graciously thanking Auntie Anne’s and the attendees for their generosity, she explained that through their support First Book will be able to provide new books to more children in Pennsylvania’s highest need communities.
Stefanie Stamatopoulos, CARES Committee Chair; Sam Gershenfeld, The Coca-Cola Company; Kyle Zimmer, President and CEO of First Book; William P. Dunn, Jr., President & COO, Auntie Anne's, Inc.; Sam Beiler, Chairman & CEO, Auntie Anne's, Inc.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Auntie Anne’s for hosting this exciting event. We appreciate their enthusiasm for supporting First Book and promoting literacy in communities across the country. First Book looks forward to growing this promising partnership.
I was thrilled to recently join other social entrepreneurs speaking with a group of 63 Fulbright Scholars from 47 countries around the world. The US Department of State brought the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar participants to Washington to explore social entrepreneurship in the areas of environmental sustainability, public health, education, and economic/social equity. As part of this seminar, the Fulbright students met with Washington area social entrepreneurship experts who took part in an interactive panel discussion, which included First Book.
As a panel expert I was thrilled to share what First Book is doing in Washington D.C. and across the United States, but I was especially excited to join Shari Berenbach, President and CEO of the Calvert Social Investment Foundation (www.calvertfoundation.org) and Maya Ajmera, Founder and President of The Global Fund for Children (www.globalfundforchildren.org). This experience reminded me that the world of social enterprise truly is a small one — the First Book Marketplace received expansion funding from Calvert several years ago and we already offer a number of wonderful books from The Global Fund for Children.
Although the seminar was only for a few short hours, I spoke with amazing young people doing poverty work in Africa, women’s rights work in Asia, and innovative education work in Europe. I look forward to working more with both Shari and Maya and, who knows, perhaps one day even working with one or more of the Scholars I met to provide new books to children in need around the world…needless to say, I returned to First Book more excited than ever about what we do, working to inspire our world’s future generation of leaders every day.
On Tuesday, an enthusiastic group of volunteers from Barclays Capital arrived at Community Partnership Charter School (CPCS) in Brooklyn, New York with exciting news for the elementary school students: in honor of the New Year, Barclays and First Book would donate 2,010 brand new books to CPCS! As we shared this news with the second-grade students, a group of them exploded into a “silent cheer” just as they had done when Principal Melanie Bryon-Capellan first explained that some special guests had arrived to spend the morning.
As part of Barclays Capital’s Investing in Bright Futures program, all second-grade students received copies of The Berenstain Bears’ Dollars and Sense as well as Now Hiring: White House Dog and had the chance to spend about an hour reading with visitors from Barclays. The rest of the 2,010 donated books will fill shelves in classrooms and the school library, where current and future students will enjoy them for years to come. With natural curiosity, motivating teachers, and now brand new resources from Barclays Capital, the future is looking incredibly bright for the students of CPCS.
