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DON'T WORRY- with your
help, Jean Dean RIF will be the way for
Kiwanians and friends of Kiwanis to
help at-risk young children to
get books in their
homes for many years to come!
I know you have read a lot about what
Congress is doing about cutting funds. They have a hard
job-it is true. Thank you for responding when we sent out
email pleas for letters to your representatives in
Washington.
SImply put- National RIF is alive and
well but a whole lot poorer now in terms of grant
availability to programs around the country. Jean Dean RIF
is alive and well but definitely in a fund raising mode so
we don't have to drop children in need.
The bottom line for us is :
National RIF funding through the Dept of Education
has now BEEN CUT from FY2011. That means, when our
Jean Dean RIF/Kiwanis contracts come up for renewal in July
2011, we can apply for renewal through July 2012, after
that, but there will be NO federal funds coming to RIF to
provide grants to RIF programs around the country.
This means about ONE THIRD of the funding we have
been using for the last 10 years will not be available for
request. It covers about 8000 of the
25,000-plus at-risk young children we serve who are either
in our poorest counties, where there ARE no Kiwanis Clubs,
or kids in counties where Kiwanis Clubs and other funders
were not able to cover them. (small clubs, big populations
of poor kids, etc)
National RIF will still exist and as
such we will renew annually to be a RIF project and work
with them to maximize their benefits to us but they won't be
in a position to send as many funds our way UNLESS they ARE
ABLE to get back in the FY2012 budget or otherwise grow
their funding which they and we are working on even as we
speak.
(I have made trips to Montgomery to speak to a member of Congresswoman Roby's staff on RIF's behalf. She attended one of our RIF distributions. Recently, the owner of a book company out of New York we have dealt with for several years came to Opelika to meet and discuss ways to work through this funding crunch. Our early literacy mission is not without friends. During these tight times, we need to remember our friends and work even closer with them to achieve funding solutions. I will be in DC in early May to attend a Leaders for Literacy conference honoring 30 RIF projects from around the nation and while there, will also call on our representatives. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide in this regard.) |
DONATE TODAY ALABAMA GIVES   
Wow! Tri-K was even bigger and better
this year!! Many Thanks to the 150+ Kiwanians,
Golden K members, Circle K'ers and Key
Clubbers who traveled to the Jean Dean
RIF warehouse today to help us get books
ready for the children we will be
serving in 2011-2012! Y'all were
AWESOME!!! Together, you put bookplates
in and inventoried 23,910 books!!!
Almost a whole distribution for the
upcoming year!! I really appreciate
it!!! I also appreciate the wonderful
supplies you brought with you for the
warehouse and your support of the
auction!
PS Big thanks also to the 40 AU Air
Force ROTC cadets who came over and
worked Thursday to get the warehouse
ready for Tri-K--sweeping, setting up
the tables, unloading 6 pallets of books
(about 14,000 books) and trimming all
the bushes around the warehouse!
 Thanks to our 80 riders, great sponsors, the auction and our delicious A-O Emblem Club bake sale, we made over $3500 to help get books to the at-risk young children we serve!! Special thanks also to Big Swamp Harley Davidson, Outback Steakhouse, Auburn Audio, CMA/Trinity Riders #294 for leading the groups on the ride and running our bike games and all of our other wonderful volunteers ,and for great stops at Chewacla State Park, Cambridge Place and the Sportsplex & Aquatics Center! We are looking forward to lots of fun next year at RIDE TO READ 2012!" Poker Run Pictures Click Here
In short- our choice in 2012-2013 will be to
widen our fund raising or reduce the children served through
Jean Dean RIF.
The RIF Advisory
Board and the Alabama Kiwanis Foundation Board discussed
this possibility at recent Board meetings and our goal is to
grow our fund raising. We were looking for
money when we first discovered the magnitude of the need. We
have looked for money every year since then to meet that
need. Now, we just need to look in more places to be able to
meet the need. Having funders is always important, but
additional corporate funders will be more important as time
goes on. Please help me think of ways to grow our funders
from companies that operate in more than one Alabama county
who might have operations in your area and therefore could
be approached at an Alabama location. Please be thinking of
at least one company to be a sponsor from your county for
the RIF Ride to Read on June 11, 2011 and the RIF RUN to
Read on October 22, 2011.
Expect more info from me
as I know more. Feel free to contact me if you want to
discuss this further. My personal cell is 334-750-9974.
Thanks, as always, for
your support of meeting the early literacy needs of
at-risk young children in Alabama.
Cathy
PS Thank goodness we finished the first ever capital campaign
and got our building paid off before this new funding crunch
begins! We're still paying to insure, maintain and operate the
building, but at least we aren't doing that AND meeting our
mortgage payments! Thanks for your help in the past
funding RIF Barnetts and supporting the Foundation auction and
thanks for your continued help this way in the future as well!
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