MEA, Detroit Red Wings team up for Reading Month local book drives

Looking for a last-minute activity for Reading Month? MEA and the Detroit Red Wings are happy to help through a new Michigan Reads promotion!

Michigan Reads (www.michiganreads.com), which the MEA launched together with the Detroit Pistons to encourage reading among Michigan students, already has been a big success. In just over two months, we’re already near the 10,000 books read milestone.
The program is now expanding to include the Detroit Red Wings, who are helping provide resources for MEA members to conduct local book drives that will help your school library, your local community library, and children whose access to books is limited by family and personal circumstance.

This effort, “Books with Wings,” encourages students to bring in lightly used books in good (near new) condition – in return, they’ll get deeply discounted tickets to one of two upcoming Detroit Red Wings home games during their push to the playoffs in late March. As an MEA member, you can volunteer to run one of these book drives in your classroom or building – and MEA will provide you the support you need to make it a success.

Students must bring in 10 lightly used books to qualify for a voucher for a discounted Red Wings home game ticket. The voucher is good for a $6 kid’s ticket with the purchase of one adult full price ($48) ticket for either the March 30 game vs. the Edmonton Oilers or the April 1 game vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets.

In your classroom or school, you will collect the books and authorize the vouchers – MEA and the Red Wings will provide you with PDF (electronic) files so you can print the vouchers, the flyers to promote your “Books with Wings” drive, and the donation labels to tape inside the books.

All we ask is that you keep track of the number of books collected, the number of students involved, and to take a group digital photo of students with the books they collected. When your drive is done, you’ll send that information and the photo to MEA – some of the photos will be shown on the jumbo screen at the Red Wings games the students attend.

You’ll have first choice of the books collected for your own school or classroom library. Any remaining books will need to be dropped off at a local library or collection center (which we’ll identify for you individually, depending on the location of your school).
If you’re interested in running a “Books with Wings” book drive in your classroom, school library or building, please send an e-mail to MichiganReads@mea.org with your name, school name, contact information and the number of students you anticipate being involved in your drive. There are a limited number of vouchers available, so the sooner you send us that e-mail, the better the chance that your students will be able to take part.

Happy Reading Month from MEA and the Detroit Red Wings!

Updated: February 23, 2010