Report to Arlington Interfaith Council

January 2006

This has been a year of exciting growth for The Reading Connection.

Thanks in part to the opportunities open to us as a Helping Hands organization, we have carried our mission to provide books and a lifelong love of reading to many new families. Both our Shelter Read-Aloud program and our Building With Books program are serving new partner agencies (now a total of 13 sites for the Read Aloud program and 8 agencies for Building with Books). And we are performing an increasing amount of literacy outreach in Spanish with Spanish language or bilingual books.

We’d like AIC to consider 2006 assistance to TRC in 2 ways. One is to help us address a large shortfall in new book donations (in-kind donations made up 30% of our budget in FY 04). Because so many literacy supporters responded to the call to rebuild libraries and care for the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, new book donations to TRC have plummeted. New books drives at AIC congregations would help us meet this shortfall. Please see our website, www.thereadingconnection.org., for book titles needed.

A second way AIC congregations can lend a helping hand is by providing read-aloud volunteers. We are ready to open our 14^th read-aloud program at a shelter. We have the expertise, but we need a core of 25 dedicated readers who will go to the shelter and read with children an hour a month. That’s enough to get a program underway. Interested persons can fill out a volunteer application on our website.

In closing, I’d like to acknowledge the Arlington congregations who have so generously supported our programs in 2005. St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Arlington Presbyterian Church, and the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Arlington all made significant contributions to support our programs. We extend to them our heartfelt thanks.

Sincerely,

Judy Hijikata

Program Director

The Reading Connection: Recognized as one of DC’s best small charities by the Catalogue for Philanthropy