By John Mennell
I believe things happen for reason. So, when I was driving to our New Jersey literacy warehouse, and missed my exit, ending up on Route 206 through the heart of Trenton, I abandoned the GPS and went with it.

Continue reading “November surprise – how magazines upcycled from Seattle, Denver, Puerto Rico, and California bring literacy to Trenton NJ readers”

We serve academically at-risk, low income families who cannot afford books and reading materials and do not have access to the internet. We strive to get families reading together. We would appreciate any magazines for Pre-K or K level and also, magazines for adult readers. 

 — Pennsylvania educator
As we gear up our industry-wide effort to help children, families, schools, and communities rebuild reading resources in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, wishlists like this one above that arrived today are harbingers of the illiteracy storm devastating eager learners in every village in every land. 
According to Reading is Fundamental, two-thirds of children in poverty live in homes with zero books. Poor infants hear 30 million fewer words during crucial years for intellectual development. Each night, 35,000 moms and kids have left everything behind to escape to the safety of a domestic abuse shelter, staying for over a month. More than a million U.S. students are homeless today. There are tens of millions of at-risk readers, worldwide. 
With titles for every reading age, interest, and language, magazines and comics are the most powerful literacy engines on the planet. We are standing up our global literacy response team to offer comfort and hope, and to help people to begin to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Matthew, and more. 
Reading is where it all begins. We have the mission and materials. We have the people and the passion. We need your backing to succeed on the scale matching the enormous literacy need and value that is waiting. Join us now. 

Our hearts and hands are with the millions of Caribbean and American children and families facing unspeakable devastation in the path of Hurricane Matthew. MagazineLiteracy.org will marshal every fiber of our mission to bring comfort. Join us. 

Delivery of magazines to the Bethany House of Hospitality location on Hamilton Ave across from Columbus Park in Trenton NJ
Trenton NJ is at the heart of our global literacy promise. Our mission to share favorite magazines sent to us by consumers and publishers relies on spirited community efforts to reach across the last mile and into hands and homes of readers.

Continue reading “Getting reading materials down the last mile into hands, homes, and hearts”

High school student Rujul Bharadwaj in Palm Beach, Florida is a young man on a literacy mission – a citizen of the world who iMAGines the way things can be and makes them so. Vinod Khosla, a trailblazing founder of Silicon Valley’s Sun Microsystems, says he lives by the philosophy, “Whatever I believe, I should make happen.”

Continue reading “Palm Beach high school student iMAGines literacy at local shelters and makes it so”

In America today, we are celebrating our freedom and self-determination. To survive in our world, each human needs food, water, shelter, and literacy. Reading is where it all begins. Literacy is the catalyst for human dignity, productivity, prosperity, collaboration, civility, and community.
Literacy ends poverty. In the U.S. alone, there are over 40 million at-risk readers with little or no access to useful reading materials. According to Reading is Fundamental, two-thirds of children in poverty – over 12 million kids and their families – have zero books at home where reading habits take hold – zero.
Worldwide, hundreds of millions of people lack access to reading materials. With titles and rich content in words and pictures for every reading age, interest, and language, magazines and comics are the most powerful literacy engines on the planet. Over 360 million magazines are printed each month worldwide, enough to erase this deficit. 
MagazineLiteracy.org works in partnership with publishers and consumers to rescue and upcycle magazines and comics for delivery to at-risk readers via foodbanks and food pantries, homeless and domestic violence shelters, youth mentoring and job trainig programs, and foster care. This is our moonshot – standing up the largest humanitarian literacy marketplace on Earth. 
For happy independence every day, join us to iMAGine what’s possible, and make it so.

Today we are celebrating the incredible mastery of children’s illustrator Aja Mulford who created this beautiful poster for our literacy roadtrip campaign. 
Our Madison office is prepping magazines for a trip to 1,200 California kids and teens in 18 locations in time for summer reading when academic gains are at greatest risk. 
After that, we will ready 100,000 Highlights for Children, National Geographic, Guideposts, Teen Vogue, Scholastic, TIME, Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith Corporation, and more great mags for eager at-risk readers via foodbanks, shelters, youth mentoring, job training, and foster care programs from our Trenton warehouse to Boston, NYC, Pilly, Baltimore, DC, Richmond, and Atlanta. 
We need your help to get it done. Join us. 
Reading is where it all begins. iMAGine what’s possible and make it so.

By Rose Ayar
12 million children. Twelve million kids don’t own a single book in their house, and that’s only in the United States. 
When the founder of this program, John Mennell, told me and the other volunteers just how many people don’t have the privilege of books, I felt determined. Determined to change that number of kids and people. 

Continue reading “TO: Mommy – Twelve million kids don't own a single book in their house”

Trenton New Jersey is a place where ideas and events that change the world spring to life – often snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. The America of today was born on a cold winter day in Trenton against all odds by the unflinching will of George Washington. Terracycle, an early friend of MagazineLiteracy.org, was founded by Tom Szaky on the premise of turning worm waste into liquid fertilizer sold in recycled soda bottles, and now upcycles millions of consumer packages collected from schools and stores into new products for homes and industries.

Continue reading “Jacque Howard iMAGines news boxes as libraries for Trenton and makes it so”

Scholastic and College Mentors for Kids partner to launch young dreams. 
Illiteracy means you cannot read to your child, or read instructions from your doctor, or a job application, or web page. Adults unable to read where once children who didn’t learn how. Children unable to read are quickly lost in school, unable to do well in any subject. Youth mentoring at programs like College Mentors for Kids is a powerful way to break the cycle. 
With titles for every reading age and interest, magazines like Scholastic are enormously powerful literacy engines for youth mentoring at College Mentors for Kids and Boys & Girls Clubs, and boatbuilders like Rocking the Boat in the Bronx, and golf and tennis mentoring programs, like Tenacity in Boston. Magazines can help to break the ice between a mentor and their young person, forming a bond around common interests and experiences, delivered into their hands by magazine stories and images that can transport readers anywhere in the world and beyond. 
We all know our favorite magazines as children, teens, and adults. The magazines we read during our formative years engage us with impressions that last a lifetime, guiding our journey to reach beyond our dreams and achieve our fullest potential. Our mission at MagazineLiteracy.org is about sharing that possibility with at-risk readers. 
At 33 university and college campuses, College Mentors for Kids helps first- through sixth-graders understand the importance of education, foster the value of diversity, and show children how to give back to the community.
Reading is Fundamental says that most children and families in poverty have zero books at home. We welcome Scholastic magazine in our global quest to wipe out illiteracy and poverty by supporting vital youth mentoring programs like College Mentors for Kids that put reading materials into hands, homes, and hearts. 
Reading is where it all begins. Join us. 

By John Mennell
On the way back home from the Nashville Country Living Fair, I traveled near enough to a magazine recycler to make a personal pick-up. At its core, our global literacy project is about making connections between people who love to read their favorite magazines and then share them with new readers. This beautiful collection from Michele will go to children and teens via our food pantry and shelter newsstands. Michele explained her own fond memories of reading magazines like these as a child and teen, and how pleased she is to share them with others. Our project is made possible by these simple acts of kindness that can change the life of another young reader forever. Thank you Michele for your generous support. Reading is where it all begins. 

A dear friend to so many, and most beloved voice on planet Earth for the magazines we cherish – Samir Husni aka Mr. Magazine – founder of the Ole Miss Magazine Innovation Center – is gearing up for the Act 6 Experience from April 20 – 22. Samir’s passion is to amplify the power of print magazines in our lives. 

Continue reading “Mr. Magazine Keeps the Flame Launching a Thousand Ships Burning Bright in Every Harbor”

Magazine Lovers Seed Largest Free Literacy Market on Earth
Media Release and Images
Trenton, NJ — Celebrating Earth Month on April 30 and May 1, MagazineLiteracy.org will open the world’s largest free literacy market in Trenton, New Jersey, Columbus, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin, stocked with recycled magazines supplied by publishers and consumers to feed a million eager at-risk readers by the United Nation’s International Literacy Day. Literacy programs will be able to shop for reading materials at no cost.

Continue reading “Earth Month: Largest literacy market on the planet opens to feed a million at-risk readers by International Literacy Day”

Today I collected 200 magazines from people in my community. I have a few Highlights too! The entire bin is filled with magazines in bags. I can barely lift it!

                       — Caroline, Olentangy Liberty H.S.
When Caroline, a junior at Olentangy Liberty High School outside Columbus Ohio, volunteered to be a MagazineLiteracy.org ambassador, she got right to work prospecting magazines in her neighborhood, and quickly struck literacy gold.

Continue reading “Caroline strikes literacy gold”

By John Mennell
This is the true story about a woman and a man who built a mountain of a million magazines for literacy in Trenton, New Jersey. Tell the world. 

Continue reading “The woman and man who went up a literacy hill and came down a mountain”

Beautiful magazines for literacy, as far as the eye can see. Just in time for Earth Month, these photos illustrates the raison d’être for MagazineLiteracy.org – with titles for every reading age, interest, and language, magazines and comics are the most powerful literacy engines on the planet.

Continue reading “Zoom around these photos to see the reason magazines are the most powerful literacy engines on the planet”

Doug Forrestal and Greg Barber
As the eye of Hurricane Sandy was bearing down for its devastating landfall on New Jersey and Long Island and points north, MagazineLiteracy.org was laying the groundwork for creating the largest free literacy market in the world – this was our dream, our moonshot. We set a goal to receive a million magazines for literacy by Earth Day. Next week, we celebrate the United Nation’s International Literacy Day and our anniversary with over a million magazines in hand.

Continue reading “Eye to eye in a perfect storm, Doug Forrestal at Ryleco Displays never flinched in the face of our enormous humanitarian opportunity”