2nd Annual Freedom Through Literacy Award

Judith’s Reading Room announced today that applications for its 2nd Annual Freedom Through Literacy Awards are available.   To apply, applicants should visit:  WWW.JUDITHSREADINGROOM.ORG/ FREEDOM-THROUGH-LITERACY-AWARD.  Deadline for submissions is January 26, 2016.  Winners will be publicly announced at the Colonial Association of Reading Educators (C.A.R.E’s) Celebrate Literacy Award Dinner on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA.

Judith’s Reading Room will award $10,000 in prize money to individual champions of literacy from around the world — educators, librarians, authors, researchers and non-profit literacy organizations — anyone who has done exemplary work to instill in others a love of reading.  The Award carries a top prize of $5,000 and up to five $1,000 runner-up awards.   

The Freedom Through Literacy Award recognizes literacy projects and/or programs that are innovative, are measurably impactful, can be replicated, go beyond the individual’s “call of duty,” and clearly express the individual’s philosophy about literacy.  The inaugural Award attracted 34 Applications from around the world.

The diverse judging panel of 23 local and international individuals has been established.  The panel includes teachers, administrators, executives from multiple disciplines, attorneys, and last year’s grand prize winner, Ms. Basarat Kazim, founder of “Alif Laila Book Bus Society’s Mobile Library,” Lahore, Pakistan.

Judith’s Reading Room, a nonprofit literacy organization, was founded in 2010.  Its mission is “Freedom Through Literacy.”   The organization has dedicated 91 libraries around the world including 123,417 books worth $1,339,570.