Doug Forrestal at Ryleco Displays has big ideas, a big heart, and is a man who takes action – he sees what can be and asks why not?
We have a mantra at MagazineLiteracy.org – iMAGine what’s possible, and make it so! When Doug learned about our need to distribute magazines for literacy, he immediately reached out to make “speed table” and other POP displays available for magazine distribution to readers in job training programs, food pantries, homeless and domestic violence shelters and other literacy programs. The timing could not have been more perfect, as we have been searching for an easy way to set up magazine distribution for literacy via onsite “newsstands” and “coffee tables.” Doug’s ingenuity and generosity has essentially created our “POP-up Literacy” program!
Doug’s impact stretches even further – from coast to coast. On his own initiative, Doug has been making deliveries of Food Network Magazine to the CHEFS culinary job training program for homeless people in San Francisco. Teaming with distributors for Hearst, Doug has extended that program to the Food Service Training Academy at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey that trains hundreds of people for culinary jobs. Program directores tell us that the magazines help culinary students learn contemporary food preparation and presentation skills, and recipe skills, and even math skills that get them ready for the job market.
We know that people love to read and share magazines and that, with titles for every age level and interest, magazines are especially powerful for literacy. There are 16 million children in poverty in America. Two-thirds of children in poverty live in homes with no books.
Doug’s good deeds underscore the idea that there is a role for every person in every corner of the magazine publishing industry to play in our literacy mission to get magazines into the hands and homes of at risk readers.
Thank you Doug for showing us the way to change the world – one magazine – one reader at a time!
Join us.
Ryleco displays create POP-up Literacy!
