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Contacts: John Mennell MagazineLiteracy.org T 1 609 651-4340 E john@childmagmonth.org

Jack Yan, Publisher Lucire T 64 4 387-3213, F 64 4 387-3213 E jack.yan@jyanet.com

Magazine publishing powerhouses and reading advocates team to inspire schools to join global magazine recycling initiative for literacy

Children’s Magazine Month and San Francisco kindergarteners are catalyst for first-ever worldwide campaign to recycle millions of magazines to new readers by Earth Day

Princeton, NJ, October 11 (JY&A Media) Education, literacy, and magazine leaders are marking the sixth anniversary of Children's Magazine Month this October by mobilizing teachers, librarians, and schoolchildren, worldwide, to organize KinderHarvest magazine recycling projects to collect millions of magazines for new readers.
   The magazines recycled by school children in their classrooms and school libraries will be given to other children and families in nearby homeless and domestic violence shelters, and to food pantries for distribution inside bags of groceries. Local organizers will create and decorate KinderHarvest bins from recycled boxes, and post stories and photographs about their magazine recycling projects online at childmagmonth.org.
   The project will grow throughout the school year, culminating with a tally of the number of magazines recycled to new readers on Earth Day 2008.
   The international magazine harvest for literacy has been given an early boost by Dr Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, a former migrant farm worker who graduated from Harvard Medical School and is now a leading neurosurgeon and brain cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. Dr Quiñones will help to inspire students in his hometown of Baltimore and across the globe to organize KinderHarvest collections.

Children's Magazine Month assembles 200,000-plus magazine and reading leaders to reach for common goals
Building an international coalition of magazine, reading, and community stakeholders to reach common recycling and literacy objectives has been made possible by this year's celebration of Children's Magazine Month, which was inaugurated by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), and is co-managed by the Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project (MagazineLiteracy.org).
   The idea of celebrating Children's Magazine Month has brought together an influential group of magazine and reading leaders with the connections and clout to mobilize a massive recycling campaign for child and family literacy, worldwide. Along with the AEP and MagazineLiteracy.org, the group spearheading the project includes the International Reading Association, the Magazine Publishers of America, the American Association of School Librarians, Get Caught Reading, and the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP). The groups will engage their well over 200,000 members to help change the world, one magazine at a time.
   MagazineLiteracy.org is the first and only global, magazine industry-wide organization dedicated to promoting child and family literacy. ‘We have created a first-ever international collaboration of magazine and literacy leaders, and are so pleased to be kicking off with the personal commitment and inspiring leadership provided by Dr Quiñones,’ said John Mennell, Founding Director of MagazineLiteracy.org and co-manager of Children's Magazine Month.
   ‘This global campaign combines recycling and literacy awareness to breathe a second life into the magazines we enjoy. Our KinderHarvest programme collects wonderful magazines and puts them into the hands, homes, and hearts of children and families who want to learn and love to read. It's like food gleaning, where humanitarians gather crops in the field to feed the hungry. Except, this harvest gleans magazines to feed children and families hungry to read and succeed, recycling the magazines we all love to meet local literacy needs,’ he said.
   Founded in 1895, the AEP represents over 400 educational publishers. ‘KinderHarvest combines the three Rs of education with the three Rs of recycling to promote the three Rs of magazine literacy: read, recycle and reuse," said Charlene Gaynor, CEO of AEP.
   ‘We created Children's Magazine Month to underscore and to celebrate that we each have our own favourite memories reading children's magazines and to inspire a new generation of young readers whose own dreams take flight out of wonderful magazine pages. KinderHarvest creates an easy opportunity for one child or family to share the joy of reading magazines with another child, and for one classroom or school to help another get reading materials,’ she added.
   With 90,000 members in more than 100 countries, the International Reading Association is a long-time supporter of Children's Magazine Month and promotes reading and literacy, worldwide. ‘KinderHarvest gives children a chance to share what they like to read with others, which is something adults do all the time. It also offers opportunities for communities to support literacy in a way that highlights the importance of reading outside of school. We know that children who read more, read better. KinderHarvest will give many children that chance,’ notes Linda Gambrell, president of the International Reading Association and Clemson University professor.
   Established in 1919, the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) represents more than 240 domestic publishing companies and more than 80 international companies. This year, the MPA launched an industry-wide campaign to encourage consumers to recycle their magazines. ‘What fortuitous timing. The KinderHarvest magazine recycling project is completely aligned with Magazine Publishers of America's current industry-wide effort to encourage consumers to reduce waste, reuse resources and recycle magazines. We wholeheartedly support the Children's Magazine Month initiative to give magazines new life by putting them in the hands of children and families in need,’ said Nina Link, President and CEO of MPA.
   There are over 90,000 school libraries in the US alone. Members of the American Association of School Librarians are at the heart of inspiring new readers and will help to plant the seed for KinderHarvest in schools across the US. ‘Children's magazines offer something for every student—from the most reluctant to the most voracious reader,’ said Julie Walker, Executive Director of the group.
   Get Caught Reading brings celebrities and literacy leaders together to focus attention on the power of children's reading. ‘We're pleased to support sister programmes that encourage the pleasures of reading with children of all ages, and the importance of literacy is a critical message we all universally share,’ said Tina Jordan, Vice President at the Association of American Publishers. ‘The core of Get Caught Reading encourages children to escape into the wonderland of creativity with reading, with celebrities sharing with them their love of reading with the campaign, utilized by teachers, booksellers, and librarians at their events nationwide,’ she added.
   Founded in 1925 and representing more than 110,000 magazine titles, as well as national magazine associations and other stakeholders in more than 55 countries, FIPP is taking this year's Children's Magazine Month celebration to magazine publishers and consumers across the globe. ‘It's a wonderful initiative,’ said FIPP President and CEO, Donald D. Kummerfeld. ‘We support the efforts of our members in the US and all over the world to promote magazines and literacy. This programme does an incredible thing by making magazines available to those who wouldn't otherwise have access.’

Earth Day magazine recycling by a classroom of San Francisco kindergarteners inspires worldwide school drive
When Ron Buchanan's kindergarten students at the Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco organized the first classroom KinderHarvest magazine recycling drive, they did not know they were planting a seed that will now be spread to grow in schools around the globe. Their KinderHarvest magazine collection was organized before the end of the last school year to celebrate Earth Day and help others, collecting hundreds of magazines for homeless children and families.
KinderHarvest drives are starting at schools near Boston, New York City, Springfield, Ill., and other locations, with outreach happening on every continent across the globe.
   Katie Simmons, a Boston magazine literacy organizer has already collected over a thousand magazines for new readers in eight local literacy programmes, including Anthony, a boy in a homeless shelter who now reads to his sister and mom. Katie has begun to reach out to teachers, students, and parents to organize KinderHarvest magazine recycling drives in schools to help other homeless kids and families.
   Schools are also encouraged to support reading in early learning and after-school programmes, and other nearby classrooms that need reading materials. Vicki Hall, a librarian for five Springfield, Ill. schools is organizing a KinderHarvest collection to stock their library shelves with magazines.
   Organizing a KinderHarvest magazine collection in a school or library involves four simple steps:
   (a) find local literacy needs;
   (b) decorate collection bins made from recycled boxes;
   (c) collect magazines from family and friends;
   (d) deliver magazines to local literacy programmes.
   The recycling can continue year-round. Stories and photos from schools will be posted on the Children's Magazine Month website. For more details about getting started, visit <http://childmagmonth.org>.
   Auras Design of Silver Spring, Md. is providing creative services for the global KinderHarvest project. Auras, founded by Bob Sugar in 1983, is a leading provider of editorial design and marketing communications services to magazine publishers, and recently launched FPO, a magazine for the industry's own design professionals.
   Jack Yan & Associates, founder of the Lucire global fashion magazine, and long-time supporter of MagazineLiteracy.org, is spearheading international public relations and marketing services for the KinderHarvest campaign. ‘This initiative combines all the things we stand for: helping the next generation and helping our planet, and doing it on a global scale,’ says Jack Yan, CEO of Jack Yan & Associates and publisher of Lucire. ‘I'm amazed at the good work MagazineLiteracy.org does and how the organization brings so many groups together for positive change,’ he added.
   Mint Advertising of Branchburg, NJ is developing a public service (PSA) display advertising campaign for MagazineLiteracy.org promoting how magazine readers can support literacy needs in their own communities.
   Knowledge Marketing of Plymouth, Minn. is providing the campaign with an integrated suite of touch point solutions.
   The KinderHarvest recycling project is hosted by ThinkHost on a web server powered by renewable wind and sun energy.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded at <http://jya.net/071010pr0.htm>.

About MagazineLiteracy.org
The Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project (http://MagazineLiteracy.org/) helps kids learn to read and build their self-esteem by organizing collaborative magazine industry, business and community partnerships that provide much needed magazines to schools, and community literacy programs. The project strives to unleash the awesome potential of children’s magazines as a powerful literacy resource for kids and families. MagazineLiteracy.org manages Children’s Magazine Month each October with the Association of Educational Publishers (http://edpress.org).

Notes to editors
Lucire is a registered trade mark of Jack Yan & Associates and subject to protection in certain jurisdictions. All other trade marks are the properties of their respective owners and are only used in a descriptive fashion without any intention to infringe.

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