Books for Kids - Youth Literacy
Tax deductible
Help keep children's books in children's hands.
Did you know that 80% of children's books donated to thrift stores are turned into pulp fiber and made into cardboard?? Chapter 2 Chapter prevents these high quality & usable books from being recycled and directs them back to needy children and families.
We need your help to deliver these children's books, FREE of charge, to licensed day cares, food banks, domestic violence shelters, English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, summer lunch and reading programs, and other social service providers that serve low income families.
We need to transport about 8 tons of books (about 20,000 lbs on 20 pallets) to Eastern Washington and the cost of trucking it over is more than we can afford. Can you please help us out?
Chapter 2 Chapter, a 501(c)[3) non-profit, needs your help to promote early child development and youth literacy through increased book ownership. We populate the homes of food and housing insecure families with children's books so they can enter Kindergarten prepared and ready to thrive. Supporting youth literacy throughout elementary and middle school is one of the keys to reducing high school drop out rates. Help us close the acheivement gap and boost graduation rates.
WHO: Chapter 2 Chapter was started in 2017 by high school sophomores Analise & Kristina Chiu, with help from their retired police officer father, Michael, who was himself an "at-risk youth" that succeeded only through pretty drastic educational intervention.
Kristina and Analise, growing up in a small rural community, have witnessed first hand kids they went to Kindergarten with that lagged behind in school, struggled, and then dropped out altogether.
Volunteers sorting "Almost New" children's books
Michael, in his 26+ years of city police work, has seen the result of this achievement gap in people who have failed to thrive in our society. The most extreme examples were expressed by criminal behavior, substance abuse and ultimately homelessness and incarceration.
Analise, Kristina and their father want to help on the front end and prevent the conditions that lead to the acheivement gap and the negative outcomes down the road.
WHERE: Chapter 2 Chapter has grown very rapidly in the past 10 months. There are now three chapters operating in Washington serving a seven county area (King, Pierce, Snohomish, Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas and Ferry Counties). Our business model is designed to be easily replicated, not only throughout Washington, but to be exported into other states. We are seeking like minded people in other states to develop their own independant chapters throughout the US.
We need your help to support this operation, build our capacity, expand our impact into Southwest Washington (Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania & Lewis Co.) and Central Washington (Yakima, Kittitas, Grant, Klickitat & Benton Co.) and support our all volunteer staff.
Yup, we have no paid staff. We're 100% volunteer!!
WHY: Beyond simply "reduce / re-use" and sustainability issues, Chapter 2 Chapter is trying to reduce the achievement gap between well off families and those less fortunate. This gap begins during the formative years of life. Early child development is one of the key predictors to educational and professional success in later years. Sadly, early child development is also a predictor of the probability of future criminal behavior and incarceration rates.
Early reading skills build not only vocabulary but also word association, longer attention spans, task completion and verbal skills. Repeated studies have concluded that low income households do not have the resources to obtain quality children's books. Over 60% of low income households have few or no age appropriate books for toddlers, children and teenagers. These households are often "book deserts."
These same children are more likely to enter Kindergarten under prepared and struggle to catch up academically. They frequently fall back further during summer break as compared to children from households with more resources. To help combat this trend, Chapter 2 Chapter provides books to year round social services like food banks, summer lunch programs and low income housing.
This is where Chapter 2 Chapter shines. We currently deliver the books for FREE to over 26 social service providers so children and parents can take home the books they want to keep.
Our community partners include: HopeLink, Compass Housing Alliance, Encompass, ALL Domestic Violence shelters in the 7 counties we serve, community food banks and Eastside Baby Corner that provides material support to over 150 non-profits in western Washington.
HOW: Most books donated to thrift stores like Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, and Value Village are sold to used book re-sellers that specialize in online book sales on Amazon and other internet platforms. Public and school libraries also cycle books out of circulation by selling them by the ton.
These re-sellers can only maintain an inventory so large. They might stock 10 copies of Dr. Suess's "Cat in a Hat," but anything over 10 is sold off as surplus. They are sold by gross weight to recyclers to convert into paper pulp and remade into cardboard. Think about that. Visualize semi-truck trailers filled with children's books being shredded and turned into pulp fiber.
Conveyor belt filling an industrial waste bin with surplus books.
Yes, thousands of tons of high quality children's books are shredded and turned into pulp and made into cardboard, cereal boxes, paper grocery bags, toilet paper tubes!
Only 20% of used books are retained by resellers.
Chapter 2 Chapter saves these precious books for their original intended purpose. We snag books like Curious George, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Moon and give them a second life on the laps of another parent so they can read to their children.
20% of the books we save are in NEW condition.
DONATE: Where will my donation go?
Your donation will support our programs and services. In our "start-up" year, we've been able to operate at almost 90% efficiency. For every dollar we receive, about $0.86 went directly to programs and services. Yes, we are that efficient. We're all volunteers. No payroll.
BUT, we need your help in getting the books to some of the poorest counties in Washington.
Chapter 2 Chapter is recognized by The Washington State Secretary of State as a non-profit charitable oragnization and the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)[3] non-profit (EIN 82-1916303).
Please donate via GoFundMe or directly by check. To donate directly, please contact us through our website or Facebook site listed below.
For more information or to contact us, please visit our website: www.Chapter2Chapter.org
or Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreeBooksFromChapter2Chapter
Did you know that 80% of children's books donated to thrift stores are turned into pulp fiber and made into cardboard?? Chapter 2 Chapter prevents these high quality & usable books from being recycled and directs them back to needy children and families.
We need your help to deliver these children's books, FREE of charge, to licensed day cares, food banks, domestic violence shelters, English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, summer lunch and reading programs, and other social service providers that serve low income families.
We need to transport about 8 tons of books (about 20,000 lbs on 20 pallets) to Eastern Washington and the cost of trucking it over is more than we can afford. Can you please help us out?
Chapter 2 Chapter, a 501(c)[3) non-profit, needs your help to promote early child development and youth literacy through increased book ownership. We populate the homes of food and housing insecure families with children's books so they can enter Kindergarten prepared and ready to thrive. Supporting youth literacy throughout elementary and middle school is one of the keys to reducing high school drop out rates. Help us close the acheivement gap and boost graduation rates.
WHO: Chapter 2 Chapter was started in 2017 by high school sophomores Analise & Kristina Chiu, with help from their retired police officer father, Michael, who was himself an "at-risk youth" that succeeded only through pretty drastic educational intervention.
Kristina and Analise, growing up in a small rural community, have witnessed first hand kids they went to Kindergarten with that lagged behind in school, struggled, and then dropped out altogether.
Volunteers sorting "Almost New" children's books Michael, in his 26+ years of city police work, has seen the result of this achievement gap in people who have failed to thrive in our society. The most extreme examples were expressed by criminal behavior, substance abuse and ultimately homelessness and incarceration.
Analise, Kristina and their father want to help on the front end and prevent the conditions that lead to the acheivement gap and the negative outcomes down the road.
WHERE: Chapter 2 Chapter has grown very rapidly in the past 10 months. There are now three chapters operating in Washington serving a seven county area (King, Pierce, Snohomish, Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas and Ferry Counties). Our business model is designed to be easily replicated, not only throughout Washington, but to be exported into other states. We are seeking like minded people in other states to develop their own independant chapters throughout the US.
We need your help to support this operation, build our capacity, expand our impact into Southwest Washington (Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania & Lewis Co.) and Central Washington (Yakima, Kittitas, Grant, Klickitat & Benton Co.) and support our all volunteer staff.
Yup, we have no paid staff. We're 100% volunteer!!
WHY: Beyond simply "reduce / re-use" and sustainability issues, Chapter 2 Chapter is trying to reduce the achievement gap between well off families and those less fortunate. This gap begins during the formative years of life. Early child development is one of the key predictors to educational and professional success in later years. Sadly, early child development is also a predictor of the probability of future criminal behavior and incarceration rates.
Early reading skills build not only vocabulary but also word association, longer attention spans, task completion and verbal skills. Repeated studies have concluded that low income households do not have the resources to obtain quality children's books. Over 60% of low income households have few or no age appropriate books for toddlers, children and teenagers. These households are often "book deserts."
These same children are more likely to enter Kindergarten under prepared and struggle to catch up academically. They frequently fall back further during summer break as compared to children from households with more resources. To help combat this trend, Chapter 2 Chapter provides books to year round social services like food banks, summer lunch programs and low income housing.
This is where Chapter 2 Chapter shines. We currently deliver the books for FREE to over 26 social service providers so children and parents can take home the books they want to keep.
Our community partners include: HopeLink, Compass Housing Alliance, Encompass, ALL Domestic Violence shelters in the 7 counties we serve, community food banks and Eastside Baby Corner that provides material support to over 150 non-profits in western Washington.
HOW: Most books donated to thrift stores like Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, and Value Village are sold to used book re-sellers that specialize in online book sales on Amazon and other internet platforms. Public and school libraries also cycle books out of circulation by selling them by the ton.
These re-sellers can only maintain an inventory so large. They might stock 10 copies of Dr. Suess's "Cat in a Hat," but anything over 10 is sold off as surplus. They are sold by gross weight to recyclers to convert into paper pulp and remade into cardboard. Think about that. Visualize semi-truck trailers filled with children's books being shredded and turned into pulp fiber.
Conveyor belt filling an industrial waste bin with surplus books.Yes, thousands of tons of high quality children's books are shredded and turned into pulp and made into cardboard, cereal boxes, paper grocery bags, toilet paper tubes!
Only 20% of used books are retained by resellers. Chapter 2 Chapter saves these precious books for their original intended purpose. We snag books like Curious George, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Moon and give them a second life on the laps of another parent so they can read to their children.
20% of the books we save are in NEW condition.DONATE: Where will my donation go?
Your donation will support our programs and services. In our "start-up" year, we've been able to operate at almost 90% efficiency. For every dollar we receive, about $0.86 went directly to programs and services. Yes, we are that efficient. We're all volunteers. No payroll.
BUT, we need your help in getting the books to some of the poorest counties in Washington.
Chapter 2 Chapter is recognized by The Washington State Secretary of State as a non-profit charitable oragnization and the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)[3] non-profit (EIN 82-1916303).
Please donate via GoFundMe or directly by check. To donate directly, please contact us through our website or Facebook site listed below.
For more information or to contact us, please visit our website: www.Chapter2Chapter.org
or Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreeBooksFromChapter2Chapter
Organiser
Michael Chiu
Organiser
Fall City, WA
Chapter 2 Chapter
Registered charity
Donations are typically 100% tax-deductible in the US.
