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We appreciate our volunteers!
Page Ahead depends on our many amazing volunteers in order to reach more than 22,000 young readers across the state with brand-new books and reading resources. Our volunteers sort, shelve, and put stickers in books, maintain and restock Book Oases, read to kids in our Story Time program, serve on committees and the board of directors, help make our Book Up Summer book fairs happen, decorate bookmarks, and so much more. In all, more than 270 people donated over 2,707 hours to giving kids the chance to read by supporting Page Ahead over the last year. We are so grateful to our volunteers!
And an extra-special thank you to the winner of the 2023 Sarajane Beal Award for Volunteer Excellence, Karol Swenson!
Karol has served on our program committee for several years, has been a Story Time reader to multiple classrooms, and has supported Page Ahead’s A Taste for Reading luncheon as a volunteer several times. Karol has also helped train fellow Story Time volunteers, done site visits for our Story Leaders preschools across the state, and was a BIG help during our Book Up Summer book fairs this year, serving as a Book Fair Expert and helping lead volunteers from Amazon while they worked with kids to pick their free books. Page Ahead is extremely fortunate that Karol has devoted so much time to our work—and so generously shared her incredible professional experiences around early childhood education with us.
Thank you, Karol!
A staff change at Page Ahead
Page Ahead bids a fond farewell to development manager Rebecca Brinbury, who is moving on to her next opportunity as an editor at Amazon.
“I’m so grateful to have spent more than four years working along the amazing folks here at Page Ahead doing such gratifying work,” says Rebecca. “You won’t find an organization or group of people better suited for the important work of making sure every kid gets a chance to grow into a reader. I look forward to staying connected as a supporter and volunteer!”
Thanks, Rebecca, and best of luck in your next chapter!
Page Ahead’s impact this year
During the 2022–23 program year, Page Ahead:
- Provided 26,389 kids in need with 296,855 new books
- Partnered with 203 preschools, elementary schools and other community organizations
- Stocked 19 Little Free Libraries with more than 6,000 new children’s books
Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with us—it takes many people to make this work possible.
RBIs for Literacy
PACCAR is widely known for their trucks—but did you know their passion for education is as big as their big wheelers?
Over the past 17 years, PACCAR has partnered with the Seattle Mariners through the RBIs for Literacy program—putting books in the hands of kids who need them most. The innovative partnership has raised enough to purchase hundreds of thousands of new books for kids who really need them! And PACCAR employees have collected an additional 40,000 new books through workplace book drives—which are starting up again soon. Thank you, PACCAR, for supporting kids and reading!
Community book drive at the Mariners
Mariners Care and PACCAR are hosting a book drive at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday, August 29 to benefit Page Ahead. Heading to the game? Stop by to see us and make a donation at the following locations:
Home Plate and Left Field gates
Terrace Club entrance
Parking Plaza
Above the ‘Pen
Or you can text BOOKS to 707070
All donations will benefit Page Ahead and give kids in need the chance to read.
Go Mariners!