We're thrilled to introduce our newest charity partner—because not every Alaska teen pregnancy ends with Palins all arms around each other on stage and the great Bristol-Levi love story.
ALASKA:
Covenant House Alaska
A haven for homeless youth—serving the state of Alaska for 20 years—Covenant House offers food and shelter, programs and care for young people who are trying to put their lives back on track. Saving kids from the streets "with unconditional love and a door that's open 24/7." And it's cold in Alaska.
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
Covenant House Alaska
609 F Street
Anchorage, AK 99501
MAINE:
The Telling Room
A nonprofit writing program dedicated to providing free after-school tutoring, creative writing workshops, and general support for writers ages 8 to 18. The goal is simple: To meet each student's passion for writing with equal enthusiasm, to provide role models, and to honor the act of storytelling as a vital means of expression and community building. Much of their work focuses on refugee and immigrant teenagers looking to further their English skills and discover the power of their unique personal voices.
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
The Telling Room
225 Commercial Street
Portland, ME 04101
NEW YORK:
The Lower Eastside Girls Club
I'd say the birthplace of RED—in my neighborhood, where I really learned what girls are capable of, and where I met Cindy Morand (paperback p.245), who could singlehandedly wipe out racism. A very special place, where girls and young women, age eight to 23, can develop confidence in themselves and their ability to make a difference in the world through strong arts, literacy, science, health, and leadership programs. P.S. They can bake, too!
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
Adriana Pezzulli Newman
Director of Development
The Lower Eastside Girls Club
56 E. 1st Street
New York, NY 10003
PEN Readers & Writers
The PEN American Center's program for young New Yorkers in underserved public high schools, primarily in Brooklyn and the Bronx, through literacy workshops, library-lending building, off-campus Young Scholars in Literature events, and the Writing Institute, a progressive series of after-school and summer writing workshops based on professional writers' workshop experience.
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
Attn: PEN Readers & Writers Program
PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Ste 303
New York, NY 10012
Housing Works
(and see the Nov 12 RED event they're hosting with Francine Prose)
RED donations to Housing Works will be sold in their Used Books Café to help the more than 2,500 homeless, HIV-positive New Yorkers they serve each year. Your support helps their clients access medical services, housing, and employment to get them back on their feet.
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
Chaya Thanhauser
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby St
New York, NY 10012
NATIONAL:
The Big Picture Company
The Rhode Island-based superheroes designed a highly personalized, student-centered high school in 1995—and now work with more than 500 schools around the country (college coming soon!) , researching and replicating new designs for education, training educators, and actively engaging the public as participants and decision-makers in the education of our youth. Trust me, it works. Absolutely incredible. Working on a RED writing workshop there for 09.
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
Attn: Amy Gerhard
The Met in Providence, A Big Picture Learning School
325 Public Street
Providence, RI 02905
INTERNATIONAL:
OneKid OneWorld
As you see from the name, very close to RED's heart with this new grassroots one book, one kid, one school makes a difference—in fact, might be the only way to make a difference. (Personal bonus and what led me to them: founder Josh Bycel is a fellow UW-Madison Badger.) The organization partners US students with kids in refugee camps and schools in war-torn and poverty-stricken areas of the world. RED the Book Drive will send books to their first project, the Nyamasare Girls School and Orphanage in Suba, Kenya. In an area with one of the highest rages of HIV/AIDS in all of East Africa and where one in ten girls go to secondary school, Nyamasare is the only girls' secondary school in the entire district…and a safe haven for girls to dream (and write) about a better life. Working on a RED writing workshop there for 09, how about that?
SHIPPING ADDRESS/SEND REDs TO:
OneKid OneWorld
1109 South Clark Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90035
We'll be adding charity partners through the holidays—and please feel free to drop us an email to nominate an organization you think might want to be a recipient of RED donations or join us in writing workshops.