Reach Out and Read National News
PRNewswire
Students Nationwide Ensured More Than 7 Million Books Donated to Disadvantaged Children in the Last Five Years
May 22, 2007
NEW YORK, May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Scholastic Book Clubs' ClassroomsCare program was honored today with a 2007 Gold Cause Marketing Halo Award, America's highest honor for companies and causes that do well by doing good. ClassroomsCare was honored for Best Social Service/Education Program at the fifth annual Cause Marketing Forum conference.
Launched in 2002, ClassroomsCare is an annual philanthropic literacy campaign designed to teach children the joys and importance of reading and giving. Students in classrooms around the country are encouraged to "read 100 books to give 100 books" (up to one million books annually) from Scholastic Book Clubs to one of four national nonprofit organizations: First Book, Reach Out and Read, Save the Children and Hello Friend. Scholastic Book Clubs is a division of Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company.
"The Cause Marketing Halo Awards demonstrate the good that can be done when businesses and nonprofits team up," said David Hessekiel, president of Cause Marketing Forum, Inc., the program's organizer. "It's a competition in which we all win." Cause marketing is the strategy of building mutually beneficial alliances between companies and causes.
"We are honored to be selected as a recipient of a Gold Cause Marketing Halo Award and proud to work alongside our fantastic nonprofit partners. It is their commitment and the commitment of the millions of children who have participated in the program over the last five years that makes ClassroomsCare a success," said Judy Newman, President, Scholastic Book Clubs. "Across the country, teachers and students continue to embrace the ClassroomsCare program not only because it encourages reading, but also because it empowers kids to make a difference in the lives of other children."
More than 750,000 classrooms nationwide have participated in ClassroomsCare since its inception and more than 7 million books have been donated by Scholastic Book Clubs as part of the program. In addition to encouraging increased reading in the classroom, the program has been used to respond to specific events such as the Tsunami in Indonesia and Hurricane Katrina.
This September, classrooms nationwide will receive information from Scholastic Book Clubs on participating in the 2007 ClassroomsCare campaign. For more information on ClassroomsCare, please visit their web site.
A complete list of this year's Cause Marketing Halo Award winners will be available at as of May 18.
About Scholastic Book Clubs For 59 years, Scholastic Book Clubs have provided monthly catalogues offering top quality books and reading materials from all publishers to teachers and students in pre-school through high school. Today, eleven different Scholastic Book Clubs reach over one million teachers each month, providing the most sought-after titles at affordable prices for children in classrooms nationwide. Over 80% of all elementary school teachers in the United States participate in Scholastic Book Clubs.
About Scholastic Scholastic Corporation (Nasdaq: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys. The Company distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school- based book fairs, and school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores, schools, libraries and television networks; and the Company's Internet site .