Last week, Reading Is Fundamental Inc. (RIF) and the Coca-Cola Company launched the first phase of a three-year literacy partnership that will reach out to more than five million of the country's neediest kids. Using a portion of Coca-Cola's $18-million donation announced earlier this summer—the largest single corporate sponsorship in RIF's 35-year history—the literacy organization has established a RIF Reading Planet Web site offering activities for children and their families, a reading poll and an interview with children's author Barbara Park, creator of the Junie B. Jones children's series. The site can be accessed through RIF's own Web site, www.rif.org, or directly at www.rifreadingplanet.org/rif.
Other components of the Coca-Cola partnership include the development of 10,000 Classroom Collections of 100 to 120 trade hardcover children's books for kindergarten through grade three. The books will be distributed to schools that lack libraries and/or books in the classroom. "What we want kids to do," said RIF media relations specialist Jennifer Greenhalgh, "is borrow the books and take them home. These Classroom Collections are meant to engage children, parents and schools."
Booksource, a St. Louis wholesaler that worked with RIF on a more limited collection program last year, has been selected to distribute RIF/Coca-Cola books. According to president Neil Jaffe, Booksource will have 3,000 collections in schools by mid-December. "It's really nice to be involved in this project," Jaffe told PW. "It's a wonderful opportunity."
While half of the grant has been earmarked for the Classroom Collections, there are several other components of the partnership, including Ingenuity Grants, which will be given to individual RIF programs to enhance their literacy activities. In addition, RIF and Coca-Cola will operate 15 StoryTraveler vehicles to bring literacy activities and awareness to parks, malls and RIF events throughout the country.
