MRC Sponsored Bookshelves

Little red bookshelves are popping up all over Minnesota with the help of members of the MRC.

Members in the North Central and North East regions are sponsoring BRBs – specifically, Bright Red Bookshelves with Project READ through the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and Big Red Bookshelves through the United Way of Duluth. Hopefully this won't turn into an MRC competition of bookshelf against bookshelf. Let's all just remember it's for the kids.

Aside from semantic differences, these bookshelves are all sponsored with the intention of improving childhood literacy by getting books to children early on. Kids can use any of the books at the site, or take one home for free.

These members keep their bookshelves active by soliciting donations, running book drives, sorting books and spreading the word in the community about childhood literacy. In Duluth, members also participate with the United Way in the Big Red Bookshelf committee and one member is a liaison between the committee and the shelf host at a local hospital.

Jill Henners, Patrick Antil, David Bard and Lara Olson from the North East region collected 612 books for their six Big Red Bookshelves in Duluth.

Dion Card, Jeanette Brown, Carolyn Boyer and Jane Shaner-Mauser sorted books from Project READ for the bookshelf in Grand Rapids.

Heather Gilge, Jeanette Brown, Sara Gonzales, Arlene Feltus sponsor the Grand Rapids bookshelves.

The BRBs are yet another example of the various efforts that MRC members are making in the community to advance literacy education. As the Minnesota Reading Corps, it is the MRC’s responsibility to do the work in Minnesota, but by members going beyond the individual sites and collaborating with other organizations like Project READ, Read for the Record and Books for Africa, there is a much greater impact being made on a local, national and global scale. As if spending your time teaching children to read wasn't enough.