Room to Read Austin - end of year recap
Peggy Keefe
The Room to Read Austin chapter had a great year and we have all of
you to thank! Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered at and
attended our events. This year’s total amount raised was so much
higher than 2008, and much more than we were expecting! We are hoping
to do the same in 2010 and know we can with your support. Here is a
quick recap of what we were able to accomplish with all of your
donations this year:
26 girls are now on scholarship in Vietnam after our “Celebrate
Inspiring Women” event at Thanh Nhi in May.
1 fully-stocked library for India after our “Indian Nights” event at
Clay Pit in mid-October.
1200+ Local Language Publishing books supplied by our Beers for Books
event at Lavaca Street Bar this Halloween.
We had a lot of fun planning and attending these events and hope you
did too. If you have any feedback for us on ways we can improve or
other events you would like us to throw, please send it along! Next
year we definitely plan on doing some more dinners at local
restaurants that serve food from a country Room to Read supports.
Beers for Books was a lot of fun too so we’re hoping to do a few in
2010.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year,
The Room to Read Austin group
P.S. Read more about the Financial Time's seasonal appeal on behalf of Room to Read below. It's not too late to make a donation, and it will be matched!
US pledge boosts FT’s literacy appeal
By Martin Dickson
Published: December 29 2009 23:11 | Last updated: December 29 2009 23:11
A California-based foundation has given a fresh boost to the FT’s seasonal appeal on behalf of the Room to Read charity by adding £250,000 to the pool of funds available to match readers’ donations.
The money from the foundation, which wishes to remain anonymous, brings the total of available matching funds up to £875,000 ($1.4m). This means that readers’ donations up to this amount will go twice as far, since they will be matched pound for pound and dollar for dollar. Readers’ contributions so far total £629,912, which means the grand total raised to date is double that.
Room to Read supports child literacy in the developing world. A series of articles in the Financial Times and on the newspaper’s website during the past month has highlighted its work. It builds libraries and schools, publishes local language children’s books and supports girls’ education in south and south-east Asia and southern Africa.
John Wood, the founder and executive chairman of the charity, said : “We are very grateful to the Californian foundation for its generous matching donation, which is designed to encourage FT readers to support Room to Read’s ambition to serve 5m children across the developing world.
“Our global team is thrilled with the response to the seasonal appeal, as this will allow us to say yes to many hundreds of communities who are asking for their first school or library.
“That being said, we have thousands more communities in the queue who are asking for our help, because they believe that the lifelong gift of education is the best ticket out of poverty for their children. So with 15 days to go in the FT seasonal appeal, we’re hoping to end on a high note and create a better future for the world through the power of education.”
Three corporate donors contributed to the initial pool of matching funds at the start of the appeal.
Barclays Capitalis providing £500,000, while Atlassian, the software company, and Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, are giving £60,000 each.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Schools are a luxury not a right in Nepal - Dec-24
Video: David Pilling on Room to Read - Dec-10
Drawing out talent to create children’s books - Dec-15
Helping children get the habit - Dec-07
Room to Read helps educate Laotian women - Dec-05
Video: Room to Read in Laos - Dec-10
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Peggy Keefe
peggy...@gmail.com
twitter.com/peglouke
Room to Read Austin
View our chapter page: http://www.roomtoread.org/austin