Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. celebrates its 50th birthday on September 14, 2016! RIF is the nation’s largest non-profit children’s literacy organization. Since 1966, more than 12 million books have been distributed to 40 million children nationwide.

In recognition of this momentous occasion, Governor David Ige has proclaimed September 14, 2016 “Reading Is Fundamental Day.” Our RIF-Honolulu volunteers will celebrate this special day by visiting Nanaikapono Elementary School and distributing books to the students in kindergarten through grade three. The book, “Happy Birthday to You!” by Dr. Seuss will also be read and presented to each of these classroom libraries.

We look forward to many more years of inspiring kids to read!

For nearly 50 years, Reading Is Fundamental has been providing books and literacy resources to millions of kids across the country. For many of these children, their RIF books are their only books. When you donate to RIF-Honolulu, you help us reach children who need us most.

With the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, we are gearing up for our fall school visits. And that means books, books and more books! We have ordered a variety of exciting new books and are busily unpacking them. We are eagerly anticipating visiting our RIF keiki this fall!

Make sure your beach bag is packed with all of the essentials: towels, sunscreen, and books! Reading Is Fundamental has book suggestions and free e-books so you can read in the sunshine all summer long! Visit http://bit.ly/rifsummer for books, activities and more for a perfect #RIFSUMMER!

Thanks to all of our super volunteers, we just wrapped up our 2015-2016 RIF school year! Our dedicated and enthusiastic volunteer team distributed 5,504 books during the Spring distribution which ended on May 13. This included a book for each of our 4,130 students, 214 classroom libraries, all student helpers and an extra bonus “grab bag” book for the third-graders. For the school year, we distributed 15,000 books!

Our volunteers are the best….and the key to making our RIF program successful! We wish them and our RIF kids a very happy summer…and happy reading!

Thanks to our dedicated crew of enthusiastic volunteers, we just completed a very successful Winter 2016 book distribution. The students as well as the volunteers loved the variety of books!

Our grand total of books distributed was 5,143. This includes 4,342 books for the kindergarten through third-grade students (as well as pre-schoolers in three of our schools), a book for each of our 54 student helpers, a book for each of our 214 kindergarten through third-grade classroom libraries and a bonus “grab bag” book for some of our third graders.

We’re already planning for our Spring distribution and new books have already been ordered. Our school visits are scheduled for April 8 to May 16.

Happy New Year! The new year means our winter book distribution is upon us. New books have been ordered and our volunteers are signing up for school visits! Our 16 school visits are scheduled between January 13 and February 26. We can’t wait to visit our RIF schools!

Suzie Lee, principal of Ma’ili Elementary School, wrote recently, “The RIF volunteers all seem to love what they do and the students in return love the RIF volunteers. At the end of a RIF distribution day, many students come to my office to show me the books they selected. They feel proud to have been able to select a book to take home and they feel special to be given a book to keep as their own. It is truly heartwarming to see the smiles and happy faces at the end of a RIF distribution day.”

Make that smiles all around!

In celebration of RIF’s 50th anniversary, RIF and ustyme are giving away a billion free e-books as a gift! Download your library of 50 free e-books at www.rif.org/50ebooks today. No purchase necessary. Children will love the classic stories all digitally mastered in HD! Share the magic of stories this holiday season.

Preparation for the 2015-16 school year is well underway. Our 16 schools have selected their distribution dates and our corps of 66 dedicated volunteers are ready to visit the individual classrooms and get the children excited about reading! The principal at Nanaikapono Elementary School said, “The RIF Program volunteers convey their love of reading every time they come to the school, and our students embrace their enthusiasm.”  Read more