Success Won't Wait!

Success Won’t Wait literacy volunteers donate 200+ children’s books to The Bradford School of Montclair, New Jersey

Admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:06:57 +0000

Success Won’t Wait recently provided The Bradford School in Montclair, New Jersey with a donation of 200+ children’s books. The books will be used to supplement the existing library collection and to bolster in-class mini libraries.

Pictured here is Rebecca, a student at the school with a sampling of the new books!

Founded in 2002, Success Won’t Wait, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit literacy organization based in Wilmington, Delaware. Want to learn more about Success Won’t Wait’s literacy projects, how to donate used books, or volunteer your time? Simply visit About Success Won’t Wait.

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Get ready for National Volunteer Week, April 15-21, 2012!

Admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:48:15 +0000

Every day, in places throughout the country, people are using their time, talent, voice, and money to create positive change in their communities. National Volunteer Week, April 15-21, is the time when we celebrate these powerful people doing extraordinary things through service.

“Celebrating People in Action” is Points of Light’s new storytelling contest recognizing the power of service through the stories of those who have made a meaningful difference in their community.

Visit Points of Light’s Facebook page now until April 21 and share your story today for the opportunity to inspire others (and win some cool prizes like a Celebrity Cruise to Alaska courtesy of Cabot).

CLICK HERE for more information

Read now, because success won’t wait!

Cab Calloway High School freshman holds independent book drive, donates over 850 books to Success Won’t Wait

Admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:56:59 +0000

Angela Preziuso is a freshman at Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington, Delaware and a tireless supporter of Success Won’t Wait’s literacy efforts. This winter, Angela – an avid reader herself – began collecting books for Success Won’t Wait for her second, annual book drive which netted an incredible 850+ books!

She received tremendous support and assistance from the Delaware Arts Conservatory where she is a dancer, as well as from local teachers, and residents in the Middletown/Bear area of the state.

Many thanks to Angela and all of the wonderful supporters who continue to donate books to Success Won’t Wait. We couldn’t do it without you!

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Children’s books donated by Success Won’t Wait to M’mouck in Cameroon, Africa inches toward the 500 mark

Admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:29:59 +0000

Charter School of Wilmington recently hosted a book drive to support its partner school, the Government School M’mouck in Cameroon, Africa. The school is building its first library and Charter students pledged to help supply them with necessary books.

Volunteers Elizabeth and Anna Gonye have been busy getting children’s and scholarly books ready for shipping. To date, the girls have cleaned, repaired, and labeled almost 500 books donated by Success Won’t Wait, with many more to come.

Stay tuned for a final total at the end of the month!

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Success Won’t Wait donates over 450 books to Friends of the Hockessin Library for annual Used Book Sale

Admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:03:57 +0000

Larry Thurrell, Friends of the Hockessin Library

This week, Success Won’t Wait volunteers delivered over 450 books to the Friends of the Hockessin Library for its annual Used Book Sale. The Used Book Sale is the organization’s largest event of the year and this year’s sale was the largest in the group’s history – over 70,000 used books were available for sale!

Now, with the Used Books Sale over — and the Friend’s book collection almost entirely depleted — Success Won’t Wait volunteers got busy find books appropriate for the next sale.

Matt McNeill, Success Won't Wait

In addition to the Used Book Sale, the Friends group raises money through private donations and membership fees. In recent years, they raised over $750,000 for the expansion and renovation of the library and spent approximately $100,000 on the reader’s garden.

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Attention teen volunteers! New Castle County, Delaware Teen Volunteer Fair scheduled for April 18

Admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:41:31 +0000

The New Castle County Library System and the DE State Office of Volunteerism are continuing their partnership and are offering a two-part volunteering program for teens. After a series of informational seminars at area libraries, we will holding a Teen Volunteer Fair at the Hockessin Library, Wednesday, April 18, 7pm.

For more information, please contact Jeanne Benzel at jbbenzel@nccde.org

Read now, because success won’t wait!

Success Won’t Wait volunteer Christine McNeill wins Delaware Prudential Spirit of Community Award

Admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:32:39 +0000

America’s 102 most outstanding youth volunteers – two from each state and the District of Columbia – were named State Honorees today by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for exemplary acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 17th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial, Inc. in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Each of the 102 State Honorees will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., May 5-8 for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2012 at that time. In addition to the State Honorees, the program’s judges recognized 234 students nationwide as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion. More than 500 other applicants were awarded Certificates of Excellence for their volunteer work.

Pictured here, far left, Christine McNeill has been a Success Won't Wait literacy volunteer since she was a pre-K student!

A large number of State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists this year – 20 percent – conducted volunteer activities to address needs overseas, especially in Africa, Latin America and Japan. Honorees traveled to volunteer in orphanages, build homes, and teach impoverished children. In their own communities, they collected food, medical supplies, clothing, books, school supplies, eyeglasses, teddy bears and soccer cleats to send overseas. And they raised money to finance school tuitions, refugee relief, AIDS medications, clean-water projects and other critical needs in desperate communities around the world. There was a great deal of energy devoted to needs in the U.S., as well. Many honorees were recognized for assisting Americans who are sick or disabled, aiding the disadvantaged, tutoring or mentoring other young people and promoting health and safety. Others were cited for enhancing school or community resources, protecting the environment, taking care of animals and supporting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Information on the volunteer activities of all of the honorees can be found at http://spirit.prudential.com

“Through their selfless acts of service, these award recipients have greatly improved the lives of others,” said Prudential Chairman and CEO John Strangfeld. “We hope their stories and their dedication inspire other young people to do the same.”

“We are so pleased to celebrate these student volunteers,” said JoAnn Bartoletti, executive director of NASSP. “It’s important to highlight them as powerful examples of how young people can make a difference.”

About The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards

Christine McNeill is now 14 and still an active volunteer. Pictured here with books from her Epic Book Drive which netted over 8,000 children's books for schools in New Orleans.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represents the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of HandsOn Network, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award. More than 5,000 Local Honorees were then reviewed by an independent judging panel, which selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria including personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth. While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees – one middle level and one high school student from each state and the District of Columbia – will tour the capital’s landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives onCapitol Hill. In addition, 10 of them – five middle level and five high school students – will be named National Honorees on May 7. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice.

Since the program began in 1995, more than 100,000 young volunteers nationwide have been honored by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards at the local, state or national level. The program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Ireland and India. In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program also distributes President’s Volunteer Service Awards to qualifying Local Honorees on behalf of President Barack Obama.

For information on all of this year’s Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, please visit http://spirit.prudential.com or www.nassp.org/spirit

About Success Won’t Wait

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Success Won’t Wait donates over 500 children’s books to the Back to Basics Learning Dynamics’ “Reading is Basic” Program in New Castle County, Delaware

Admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:08:04 +0000

Success Won't Wait volunteer Ashley Rose McNeill sorts through thousands of book donations for age appropriate books. The project was headed up and completed entirely by Ashley while on winter break from the University of Delaware!

To celebrate National I Love to Read Month 2012, Success Won’t Wait once again teamed up with Back to Basics Learning Dynamics in Wilmington, Delaware to provide over 500 books to Title 1 schoolchildren in and around New Castle County.

Together, Back to Basics Learning Dynamics and Success Won’t Wait launched the “Reading is Basic Program” in 2011, and since then the program has provided thousands of books to schoolchildren in grades K-8.

Currently, Back to Basics services almost 200 Title I students from the Red Clay, Colonial, Brandywine, Smyrna, and Appoquinimink school districts for supplemental instruction. Using book donations from Success Won’t Wait’s collection, this February Back to Basics will make over 500 age-appropriate books available to these Title I students. Program teachers will distribute 2-3 books per student, which they can take home and keep.

Ashley is ready to deliver over 500 children's books to Back to Basics Learning Dynamics' Wilmington, Delaware location!

Additional books will be provided to the children at regular intervals, and as new students are added to the Back to Basics’ Title I program, they will also receive age-appropriate books.

About Back to Basics Learning Dynamics

For 27 years, Back to Basics Learning Dynamics Inc. has been recognized as the undisputed leader in one-on-one tutoring in Delaware. In addition, the company offers a unique Department of Education-approved Private School for grades K-12 and a Private Business and Trade School for ages 16 and older. Back to Basics is the 2010 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.

About Success Won’t Wait

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Enter to win the YSA List of “The 25 Most Powerful and Influential Young People” Award; win funds for your project

Admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:21:03 +0000

YSA is launching the inaugural YSA List of “The 25 Most Powerful and Influential Young People” in celebration of our 25th Anniversary.

The YSA List will recognize 25 young people (ages 5 – 25) around the world that have made significant, large-scale change in Health, Education, Human Service, Human Rights, and the Environment.

We will announce the YSA List on Global Youth Service Day 2012 (April 20-22).

The 25 winners will receive $1,000 awards to support their ongoing efforts to change the world.

Learn more and nominate a young person by January 31 at www.YSA.org/25/list

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Success Won’t Wait receives 3,500+ book donation from the Mitzvah Circle Foundation

Admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:54:11 +0000

Volunteer Jazmine Wood helps organize approximately 3,500 books received from the Mitzvah Circle Foundation!

As most of you know, Success Won’t Wait accepts book donations from many sources — publishers, book stores, and individual citizens. Every once and a while, we are fortunate to meet another organization with complementary goals. And, that’s just what happened when one of our biggest supporters put us in touch with the Mitzvah Circle Foundation!

The Foundation provides support in the form of goods, service, gift cards and information for individuals and families when they are in a time of need. They also provide opportunities for people who want to help others to do so — encouraging volunteers to reach out to others in innovative ways . One example is the Foundation’s Adopt-a-Class Program which gives school supplies, clothing and other essential items to school children living in difficult circumstances or poverty.

Yesterday, representatives from the Foundation delivered a van full of like-new books for elementary school aged children through adults – over 90 boxes worth. Preliminary estimates put the donation somewhere over 3,500 books!

Many, many thanks to the wonderful folks at the Mitzvah Circle Foundation for this generous donation. Now we can really get busy and fulfill some of the book requests from schools, libraries, and teachers that have been languishing for lack of age-appropriate books!

To read more about the Foundation, please visit Mitzvah Circle Foundation.

Read now, because success won’t wait!