In the news:

Kohl's Kids Who Care 2010 Fayetteville Store Winner:
http://www.kohlscorporation.com/CommunityRelations/scholarship/StoreWinners.asp



Thank you to Women Transcending Boundaries for the nomination for the 2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Unsung Hero Award! There will be a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Carrier Dome on January 24th.


2010 Unsung Hero Award Video:
http://videos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2010/01/su_unsung_hero_stephanie_breed.html


2010 Unsung Hero Award Article:
http://www.syracuse.edu/news/articles/unsung-heroes-mlk-celebration-01-10.html


Congratulations to my fellow Unsung Hero award winners: Donna Bradford, Eric Kingson, and Odean Dyer!
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Sharing my love of books

By Taylor Clark / The Post-Standard

October 04, 2009, 2:05PM

Stephanie Breed, a junior at Fayetteville-Manlius High School wrote this essay for the October 12 Voices page. 


Stephanie Breed, a junior at F-M High School, sorts books for the organization she started called Books are Food for Thought.By Stephanie Breed, Contributing writer

“Wait! Wait! Are you the book lady?”

I stop lifting the book-laden suitcases into the car and turn to see a little girl in a sopping wet bathing suit running toward me. A little boy follows on her heels. She scolds him, “I told you we should have left the pool earlier!” Her frown turns into a grin as I start unzipping the suitcases in the middle of the sweltering parking lot. Little does she know that I am just as excited as she is.

Last year I created a program called Books Are Food for Thought. This program provides new and gently used books to kids in CNY who receive free meals from local agencies.
 My inspiration came from volunteering at the Samaritan Center, a local agency that feeds the hungry. While volunteering, I noticed young children going through the food line. I realized that if their families couldn’t afford food they probably couldn’t afford books. Reading has always been an important part of my life, so I decided to share my passion.

With support from Mary Beth Frey at the Samaritan Center, I soon had a bookshelf at the center that I could fill with books for children and adults to take home. In the past year, I have delivered books to the Rescue Mission and the Food Bank of Central New York’s Kids Cafe locations. I also have regular book deliveries with story times scheduled at the Northeast Community Center, Parkside Community Center, the Southside Church of Christ, Wilson Park Community Center, Schiller Park Community Center, the Bible school program at St. Vincent de Paul Church, and the East Fayette Street Boys and Girls Club.

The books have been donated by my family, friends, parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church in Fayetteville, Science Honor Society members at F-M High School, and through book drives at Wellwood and Eagle Hill middle schools. I have given away more than 2,000 books to more than 200 children.

I believe that it is very important for everyone, including teens, to help out in the community. I encourage more teens to get involved in our community because we have so much energy and tons of new ideas. You can learn a lot by getting involved and gain experiences that will help later in life.

For donations or to identify programs that could use books, please contact stephanie@booksarefoodforthought.org. A book drive is scheduled for March 1 to 25 at Eagle Hill Middle School.


Other Articles:


The Post Standard ran an article in 2009 by Elizabeth Doran, see the article here. 

Books Are Food for Thought is done with summer book deliveries!


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Books Are Food for Thought is participating in Mary Nelson's Annual Youth Day and Barbeque this Saturday!


August book deliveries: Schiller Park Community Center and Northeast Community Center.


We've added on a new delivery location! Welcome to the kids in the P.E.A.C.E Inc. program at the Westside Family Resource Center.


July book deliveries: Parkside Community Center, East Fayette Boys and Girls Club, the YES program at Bellevue School, the Southside Church of Christ, Wilson Park Community Center, Imagine Syracuse program, and Westmoreland Community Center.


Thank you to Eastern Hills Bible Church who collected several hundred books in their recent book drive!



Thank You to Wellwood Middle School for donating over 1,000 books after their Book Exchange!


Thank You to the Fairmount Community Library for their continued support.


June book deliveries: The bible school program at St. Vincent de Paul Church

Books Are Food for Thought is honored to be participating in Syracuse's first A-OK Weekend (September 11-12) with many other organizations and Women Transcending Boundaries.


Thank you to Eagle Hill Middle School. They collected over 1,810 books for Books are Food for Thought! Awesome job!



Thank you to The Samaritan Center for their April donation of books!


Welcome to the kids that participate in the YES Program at Bellevue Elementary School! Our April book delivery was very successful.
  

Books Are Food for Thought just celebrated its 2nd anniversary in February 2010!


Also a big thank you to Emerald Equipment. The company has agreed to let Books Are Food for Thought store books in their facility! (A special thank you to Mr. Tormey)