Valley Green Bank sponsors its 5th Annual Holiday Book Drive

Posted 12/11/12

In the holiday spirit, Valley Green Bank is holding its 5th annual local book drive from Nov. 23 through Dec. 31.

The Mastery Charter elementary schools – Mann Elementary, Harrity Elementary, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Valley Green Bank sponsors its 5th Annual Holiday Book Drive

Posted

In the holiday spirit, Valley Green Bank is holding its 5th annual local book drive from Nov. 23 through Dec. 31.

The Mastery Charter elementary schools – Mann Elementary, Harrity Elementary, Smedley Elementary, Hardy Williams Academy Mastery Charter School, Mastery Charter Clymer Campus and Grover Cleveland Elementary – will be the recipients of this year’s collection.

The book drive encourages families to donate new or gently used children’s books, preschool through eighth grade. The collected books will be distributed to the six elementary schools.

Local businesses are also joining in this effort. Mt Airy’s Big Blue Marble Bookstore is  offering a 10 percent discount on all books purchased and contributed to this book drive. Weavers Way Co-op will be collecting books, as well, at both of their locations.

Jay Goldstein, president and CEO of Valley Green Bank, said he was pleased to be sponsoring such a worthwhile initiative.

“There is no better way to support our children than to encourage them to be avid, accomplished readers, and, as we all know, reading is a key to success in pursuing a lifetime of learning,” he said.

Mastery Charter Schools’ CEO Scott Gordon is “thrilled” the Mastery elementary schools were chosen again for this year’s drive and commented, “Our six elementary schools serve 4,000 students who were formerly enrolled in some of the lowest-performing schools in the city. Many are three to four grade levels below where they should be in reading – so getting them to read every single day is huge. We are on track to hit our goal for every student to be at or above grade level within three years with Mastery.”

Gordon continued, “We will reach this goal by immersing our youngest students in reading now so they can go on to pursue their dreams and compete in the global economy when they grow up. Every new book donated will be in the hands of amazing children who are hungry to learn. It’s really awesome and we are just thrilled Valley Green Bank chose us for this honor.”

Shayna Wolfson, apprentice school leader for instruction at Harrity, echoed the positive reactions of all the participating teachers.

“Last year’s book drive enabled all 850 Harrity students to go home with a free book,” he said. “It was wonderful to see all of our students happy and excited to read their new book. Reading is our number one goal and the book drive enabled us to get a book in every child’s hands.”

Mastery Charter Schools is a nationally recognized leader in school turnarounds. It currently operates 12 schools in Philadelphia serving 8,000 students in grades K through 12.

Mastery believes that educational inequity is the most pressing social problem facing the country – the civil rights issue of the day. It exists to solve the problem and believes in its mission that all students learn the academic and personal skills they need to succeed in higher education to compete in the global economy and pursue their dreams.

Valley Green Bank is a locally-owned and operated Pennsylvania commercial bank. The bank was formed by community and business leaders who make customer service a priority. It offers a traditional mix of deposit accounts and interest-bearing checking accounts, savings, money market and certificate of deposit accounts. It also offers customers individual retirement accounts. It is a member of FDIC.

Bins to collect the books will be in Valley Green Bank’s locations at 7226 Germantown Ave. in Mt. Airy and 23 W. Highland Ave. in Chestnut Hill. Other bins will be located at Big Blue Marble Bookstore at 551 Carpenter Lane and at both Weavers Way Co-ops – in Mt Airy at 559 Carpenter Ln. and in Chestnut Hill at 8424 Germantown Ave..

For more information about this book drive,  contact Valley Green Bank at 215-242-7540.

 

 

 

 

readlocal