TORONTO, Sept. 23 - First Book Canada is making excellent use of its new office and warehouse space in Mississauga, Ontario; today it begins distributing over 30,000 books to children from low income families across Canada. The books were donated by Scholastic Canada Book Clubs' ClassroomsCare, a philanthropy-based classroom literacy campaign designed to teach children about the joys of reading and giving.
"We couldn't be more excited to officially join the Mississauga community," said Tom Best, executive director of First Book Canada. "It has long been our dream to have a location with facilities that enable us to collect donations of new books from Canadian publishers and then quickly distribute them to Canadian groups serving children from low income families who otherwise would not have books of their own."
Sherry Campbell, president of Frontier College, one of the groups receiving books, is thrilled with the donation. "We know from our work in marginalized or isolated communities that many families don't have books in their homes or in their communities," she said. "On behalf of the thousands of kids across the country who will be receiving these books, we're extremely grateful to First Book Canada and Scholastic Canada for their generosity."
First Book Canada is a registered charity that distributes brand new children's books from leading Canadian publishers to children from low income families across Canada. This year First Book Canada will place over 150,000 new books into the hands of children in need and is looking to step that number up significantly in 2012.
"We all remember the thrill of our first book and the enormous pleasure we took in being able to read it ourselves and then add to our collection of books," reflected Best. "Sadly, millions of children in this country don't have that opportunity. Opening this new location allows us to receive more books from publishers and distribute them quickly to groups registered with us across the country."
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