Books Are Wings is On The Road!

We are proud to announce Champlin Foundation funding to enable Books Are Wings to advance our vital mission!

The generous funding from the Champlin Foundation allowed for the purchase of a new transport van. With programs, schools sites and Book Spots all over the state of Rhode Island, the new van will serve children and families from Woonsocket to Westerly.

On a recent ride along with Michael Salvo, Transportation Coordinator for Books Are Wings, it was clear the signifigant impact the new van was making to the organization and to the community. On a recent Tuesday morning, in just under an hour, several hundred books were taken to a Pawtucket elementary school for an evening event and a new Book Spot was placed in an other Pawtucket School. Michael shared “This is going to make deliveries so much easier – we will be able to bring more books to more locations!” The van has already delivered thousands of books around Rhode Island in only a few weeks.

The van is large enough to transport thousands of books, but small enough to navigate school and community parking lots.

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Michael brings books into Ella Risk in Central Falls from the van.

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Michelle and Michael sort books brought in from the new van.

The Champlin Foundation is located in Cranston, and “Since 1932, The Champlin Foundation has awarded more than $600 million to fund capital projects and equipment for Rhode Island non-profit organizations. These investments have enabled better medical care, improved education, fostered the arts, expanded access to social services, conserved of open spaces, preserved historic buildings, advanced animal welfare and more. Quietly and steadfastly, The Champlin Foundation helps those who do good do more – to the benefit of all.”

About the new van, Executive Director Jocelynn White shares: “I’m so thankful to the Champlin Foundation for giving us the opportunity to have the van that Books Are Wings needs. We are able to respond quickly to book donations that are available as well as provide books to our books spots as soon as they are ready to go out. In our first week alone with our new van, 4,000 books were placed into book spots, at schools and in the hands and homes of children throughout Rhode island.”

If you see the Books Are Wings van around the community, make sure to say hello!

We are so excited about this amazing new resource, and if you see our van on the road; know that children and families are about to receive the gift of literacy through the opportunity to build their personal libraries.