The CPH Friends are excited to share that we have received a generous $950 donation from the Stewarts Holiday Match in support of our Kids Read, Too! program. We are especially honored by this gift, as the award process for this year was highly competitive.
Kids Read, Too! plays a vital role in our Two Towns One Book (TTOB) program. Its mission is to select engaging junior companion books and offer creative activities that connect with themes in our annual TTOB community read. For example, this year’s community read is “God of the Woods” by Liz Moore and the companion books are “The Everything Trail” by Meg Flemming and “Survival Scout – Lost in the Mountains” by Maxwell Eaton. Families enjoyed making “Indoor S’mores” over the winter school break as part of our Take and Make kits. New Take and Make kits with tools to help explore the outdoors will be available to families during spring break. Our goal is to foster a love of reading among children and inspire families to read together. These “Take and Make” kits, made possible through our Stewarts donation, offer book-related activities for families to enjoy. We hope programs like these help people of all ages join in discussions about the importance of using their strengths and sharing their stories.
Stewart’s Shops provided “Holiday Match” donations to 1629 organizations, supporting nonprofit children’s programs across upstate New York, Vermont, and western New Hampshire. These funds are used to support education, health, recreation, arts, and social service programs for children under the age of 18.
Stewart’s received 1,866 applications requesting over $4 million. They had $1.8 million to donate which is funded through patron donations from Thanksgiving to Christmas then matched by Stewart’s. We are deeply grateful for their support of the CPH Friends.
A special thank you to Linda Conklin, the CPH Friends TTOB Chairperson, for preparing our application.