WHAT:            My Home Library Launch

 

WHEN:           Tuesday, January 17, 2017

                        

WHERE:          Browning Elementary School in the North Heights Neighborhood 

                       

WHO:              Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, program volunteers Marathon Oil

                        Corporation and Credera, and guests and advocates of the My Home Library launch 

 

DETAILS:    

The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation debuted “My Home Library” at Browning Elementary School in the North Heights neighborhood.  My Home Library is a web-based tool providing a solution to home libraries being out of reach for economically disadvantaged children. Through the My Home Library platform, children are able to create a wish list of books for their very own home library, and the community is able to sponsor a child’s home library of six books by making a $30 tax-deductible donation.  Volunteers involved in creating this program include Credera and Marathon Oil Corporation. Following the My Home Library Kick Off remarks, professional athletes, organized by the Wade Smith Foundation’s Reading With the Pros program, read books to Browning Elementary students to generate excitement about reading and signed autographs.

 

In addition, the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation has joined together with the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee and their Touchdown Houston ReadOn! Initiative.  Together they are working to: mobilize the community to serve 51,000 volunteer hours over a 10-month period in the literacy cause, and provide 5,100 economically disadvantaged children across Houston with home libraries of 6 books each through the Foundation’s “My Home Library” program.  So far, the partnership has raised $30,000 (for at least 1,000) new home libraries.  The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation also announced that Marathon Oil is committing $30,000 to the Foundation to fund home libraries and Phillips 66 has provided a grant to help support the build out of the My Home Library web application and is also donating $25,000 to fund home libraries.   

 

GUESTS:         

Lance Menster, HISD Assistant Superintendent of Schools; Neil and Maria Bush, Co-Chairs of the Barbara Bush Houston Foundation; Dr. Julie Baker Finck, Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation President; Wade Smith, former Houston Texans player and Founder of the Wade Smith Foundation; Lee Tillman, Marathon Oil CEO; LaMecia Butler, Houston Super Bowl Host Committee; Julia Elizondo, Browning Elementary Principal;Priscilla Rivas, Browning Elementary School Principal; Anna Eastman, HISD Board of Education Trustee; Herb Taylor, Former KC Chief- Owner of Rays Real BBQ Pit (3rd Ward); Chantelle Anderson, Former WNBA San Antonio Stars; Sarah Marie Blanton, Former Miss Texas; Caleb Ramsey, Professional Baseball Washington Nationals; Albert Johnson III, Former Miami Dolphin; and Dj Supastar, 93.7 The Beat.                           

 

About the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation

The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, co-chaired by Neil and Maria Bush, was established as a charitable organization focused on improving the quality of life for Houston residents through the power of literacy. The Foundation advocates for literacy as a fundamental right of everyone and a foundational skill towards success in life. It is founded on the belief held by Barbara Bush, former First Lady, “If you help a person to read, then their opportunities in life will be endless.” In 2013, the Bush Family created the Houston-based foundation separate from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, a national foundation, in response to the need to deepen the awareness of and intensify services and support for the nation’s fourth largest and most diverse city – Houston.

 

For more information, visit www.bushhoustonliteracy.org/ or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bushhoustonliteracy and on Twitter @bushhoustonlit.