$210,000 Grant To Support Family Reading Programs in Five Metropolitan Areas

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation's oldest and largest children's and family literacy organization, today announced a $210,000 donation from the New York Life Foundation to support family literacy programs in Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and San Francisco metropolitan areas. The grant will directly serve more than 18,000 children and their families through RIF's Family of Readers® program.

"Families have a vital role in encouraging and motivating a child to become a life-long, active reader," said Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of RIF. "We are very thankful to the New York Life Foundation for its grant which will enable RIF to reach thousands of children and their families with important reading motivation resources."

"The New York Life Foundation is proud to support RIF, an organization that has provided hundreds of thousands of parents with the resources they need to encourage their children's love of reading," said Sy Sternberg, chairman and chief executive officer of New York Life and chairman of the New York Life Foundation. "Our partnership with RIF further strengthens the Foundation's Nurturing the Children initiative, which supports local and national projects that help children learn and grow."

Family of Readers is a national literacy program to help parents develop the skills and self-confidence to support their children's reading and learning. The program also puts books directly into children's hands and engages them in reading activities conducted by their parents. Family of Readers currently serves over 100,000 children and their parents across the country, focusing on educationally at-risk children, from birth through elementary school.

The grant will also support Family of Readers lending libraries, which allow the children to borrow books recommended by their parents or RIF coordinator. The libraries increase parents' exposure to quality children's literature, enhance their involvement in read-aloud activities, and provide children and families with access to high-quality books. The Foundation's donation will fund the purchase of 25,000 new lending library books for families.

About Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)
Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, develops and delivers children's and family literacy programs that help prepare young children for reading and motivate school-age children to read regularly. RIF's highest priority is to serve the nation's neediest children, from birth to age 11. Through a national, grassroots network of 435,000 community volunteers, RIF programs last year provided 16 million new, free books and other essential literacy resources to nearly 5 million children. For more information, visit RIF's Web site at www.rif.org  .

About The New York Life Foundation
Established in 1979 by the New York Life Insurance Company, the New York Life Foundation (www.newyorklifefoundation.org) is the major vehicle through which the company channels contributions to national and local non-profit organizations. Through its Nurturing the Children initiative, the Foundation supports organizations, programs and services that target young people, particularly in the areas of mentoring, safe places to learn and grow, and educational enhancement opportunities. Through Volunteers for LIFE, its national community involvement initiative, New York Life also encourages volunteer participation by its employees, agents, and retirees.

Contacts:

Lisa Fels
New York Life
(212) 576-7937

Rich Maiore
RIF
(202) 673-0072

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