My Mom often said that reading allowed children to escape the physical boundary of their environment to explore the infinite world of possibilities; which is especially true in low-income areas.

A couple weeks back my family and I visited an early-childhood school in Passaic, NJ, where my Mom spent the majority of her tenure as an educator and teacher coach. During our visit we discussed an opportunity to start a lending library and online parent education resource for children and their parents to promote reading literacy and comprehension. Our vision is to provide access to great children’s books to children who don’t currently have children suitable books readily available. We also are in the process of developing a parent focused website (ColleensCorner.net) to empower parents to read to their children as often as possible. Numerous studies show that the earlier a child is read to or even pretends to read themselves, the better their chances are for academic success.

I am happy to announce that our proposal to the Passaic BOE has been accepted and we will be moving forward with launching over 200 Colleens Corners in Passaic! Our first order of business was to use funds raised prior to getting the green light from Passaic, to purchase over 200 books (‘You’re Here for a Reason” – Nancy Tillman) and make our first official book drop off.

The non-profit is called Colleen’s Corner and we’re excited and eager to get to work. As we continue pushing this forward we’re actively seeking anyone who is interested in coordinating and helping to plan fundraisers.  If you are interested in helping out, please e-mail me at nick@colleenscorner.net.