Book Bonding-Fully Funded!

I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my friends from Bemidji High School Class of '91.  Many of them donated to this project and it was fully funded yesterday.
So happy!

Do you remember the first moment you fell in love with reading?

One of my earliest memories is of my Richard Scarry's Mother Goose book.  It was hardcover and I still have it.  I lived inside that book's world until I went to kindergarten.

As I progressed through school my teachers introduced me to other authors.

Beverly Cleary

Walter Farley

Roald Dahl

I loved reading.  I loved reading for reading's sake.  I loved all kinds of books:  love stories, murder mysteries, against all odds, historical, science fiction, fantasy...

I just loved reading.  And all those stories have played a part in molding my person.

I'm guessing that many of you reading this blog are also avid book readers.  

If you are, take just a moment to imagine your life if your connection to reading had never been established.  However you came to be a person that loved reading....just imagine that never happened....

Where would you be without those books that influenced your life?

Where would you be if you had never latched on to the joy of reading?

Without doubt or question, my life would have been bleak.  It is unfathomable how my spirit would have been sustained through my darkest hours without access to reading.

Now think of all the distractions that a modern-day teenager has.  So many young people enter their high school years without having fallen in love with reading yet.

Do you really want to live in a world governed by young people that never learned how to love reading?

I find it terrifying, myself.

And so deeply, painfully sad.

Here's where I'm going with this:

 The BOOK BONDING Project!

My dear friend from high school is now a high school teacher herself.  And she is trying to raise money to get high-interest reading materials in her classroom library.  She wants to put high-interest books in the hands of her students so they can fall in love with reading for the first time in their lives!  "High-interest" means the books kids are talking about NOW.  You aren't going to see Steinbeck on this list.  But a kid that doesn't like to read isn't going to pick up Steinbeck anyway.  A kid that loves to read will, quite possibly, eventually visit some of the classics.

So I'm asking you to PLEASE DONATE to my friend's classroom library by clicking on one of these links.  It only takes a minute to donate any amount you choose to give.

  Help Ms. Dittrich lead her students toward a lifetime of reading. 

If YOU recognize the value of reading in your life, this is a WORTHY cause.