Capital One and The Heart of America Foundation® Celebrate Literacy Month with New Library Build for the Children’s Museum of Richmond
Community Receives Library and More Than 2,000 Books
The Children’s Museum of Richmond will celebrate Literacy Month and the grand opening of its new Library Makeover on Thursday, March 28. Through a generous grant from Capital One, The Heart of America Foundation’s READesign® team worked with the Children’s Museum of Richmond’s staff members to transform an area within their museum into an a vibrant learning center with age-appropriate reading material for students. Approximately 75 Capital One volunteers will work at the museum to complete the library – from assembling furniture and decorating the library to sorting and stocking books. Volunteers will also read aloud to children, act as chaperones for five local schools, and help the children have an educational day at the museum. In addition to the more than 2,000 books provided for the library, Capital One will also donate four books to each of the more than 400 students attending to take home and begin building their own home libraries. This library will also feature environmentally friendly components including low to no VOC paints, and the recycling of materials from the project renovation. This library will be the first publicly accessible READesign space in the history of our partnership. All children in the region can access this wonderful new library.
The event also marks the culmination of our joint Literacy Month efforts, which included distributing 6,000 books to ten local schools. Through an onsite book drive and online fundraising effort, Capital One associates in Central VA have committed to providing thousands of books to replenish the regional Children’s Book Bank, which exists to put as many books as possible into the hands and lives of children in need. Capital One is committed to providing volunteers and support to maintain the success of the book bank.
WHERE: Children’s Museum of Richmond, 2626 West Broad Street Richmond, VA 23220
WHEN: Thursday, March 28, 2013, Volunteer Event: 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Ribbon Cutting: 11:15 a.m.
WHY: Capital One is committed to expanding economic opportunities for families and small businesses in the communities where we live and work. We focus our community involvement activities in four areas that are important building blocks of economic opportunity: affordable housing, small business and workforce development, financial literacy and education.
Capital One partners with The Heart of America Foundation® to put books into the hands of children in low-income communities and to create safe, inviting libraries in their schools. Since 2002, the organizations have donated 1,104,894 books valued at $9.2 million to 452,341 students. Capital One associate volunteers annually donate and distribute books, read to children and donate books to further efforts to foster a love of reading in children that will last a lifetime.
About The Heart of America Foundation:
The Heart of America Foundation®, a national nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C., uniquely promotes volunteer service and literacy. The organization inspires acts of service and a love of reading by building community and providing children in need with the tools to read, succeed and make a difference. Committed to education and volunteerism, The Heart of America Foundation® engages volunteers through putting books into the hands of children who need them the most. Through the Books From The Heart® and READesign® programs, The Heart of America Foundation® revitalizes school libraries and reading spaces in under-resourced communities into vital and vibrant centers of learning that become the heart of a school. Since 1997, The Heart of America Foundation® has provided children living in poverty with over two million library and take-home books. And, the organization has engaged volunteers in more than one million hours of service to communities nationwide. For more information, please visitwww.heartofamerica.org.
About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a Fortune 500 company with more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Its subsidiaries, Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., offer a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. We apply the same principles of innovation, collaboration and empowerment in our commitment to our communities across the country that we do in our business. We recognize that helping to build strong and healthy communities – good places to work, good places to do business and good places to raise families – benefits us all and we are proud to support this and other community initiatives.
About The Children’s Museum of Richmond
The Children’s Museum of Richmond has three locations, CMoR Central at 2626 W. Broad Street in Richmond, CMoR Short Pump, located in West Broad Village at 2200 Old Brick Road in Glen Allen and CMoR Chesterfield, located in the Winterpock Crossing Shopping Center at 6629 Lake Harbour Drive in Midlothian. The Children’s Museum of Richmond has been serving the community since 1981 with the mission to create innovative learning experiences for all children and those who support them that inspire the next generation of creative problem solvers. For more information, please visit www.
