Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form

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Organization Name: Virginia Children’s Book Festival
Legal Name (if Different): Eleven Pictures LTD
Also Known As: Virginia Children’s Book Festival
Mailing Address: 1166 Morton Road
City: Keysville
State: VA
Postal Code: 23947
Main Phone: 4342076705
Main Fax:
Organization Website: https://vachildrensbookfestival.org/
Employer ID Number: 20-4143989
Organization Tax Status: 501c3

Proposal Information

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Today’s Date: March 21, 2022
Requested Amount: $7,500.00

Project Title: Virginia Children’s Book Festival & Year-Round Programs
Project Description:

This grant will help more than 50,000 children engage in hands-on literary programming with award-winning authors and spark a love for reading. Through author visits, year-round programs, and virtual opportunities, your support will help children develop literate identities, have positive experiences with books, and establish lifelong leisure reading habits. The VCBF requests support for program expansion, specifically the following: year-round programming, book distribution programs, and annual festival, which will be a hybrid of in-person offerings along with virtual programming. In light of the pandemic, we have pivoted to a hybrid festival format and expanded our year-round programming & book distribution to respond to community needs. We provide programs at no cost to students & schools; this grant would enable us to continue offering our services at no cost to participants.

We are dedicated to creating a culture of literacy for all children, regardless of circumstance. We aim to help children have positive experiences with books, develop social and literate identities, and establish leisure reading habits. We stand in the gap left by underfunded schools, economic depression and technological inequality to expand the perspective of Virginia’s children and offer them innovative, interactive programming that leads to lifelong reading and better lives.

We’ll achieve our objectives by:
1.Taking books to wherever families and children are by way of book distributions. This includes our effort to make 30% or more of books distributed represent diverse voices.
2. We are also building a virtual curriculum based on READcart (social reading program) themes
3. Expanding all of our free programming (which means all of our programs since every VCBF program is offered free of charge). We plan for the VCBF to be held as a hybrid event this fall on Longwood’s campus. In addition, we are launching free monthly creative writing & reading workshops for children and youth in partnership with authors, illustrators, and other collaborators

Total Project Budget: 190,586.00

Other Funding
Sources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Received: BAMA Works Pending: Southeast VA Community Foundation, Edgar A. Thurman Charitable Foundation for Children, Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation, George & Effie Sea Foundation, Literary Arts Emergency Fund We have also historically received support from the Nora Roberts Foundation, the Rea Charitable Trust, and the Walter Payne Foundation as well as in-kind contributions from Longwood University, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and various corporate sponsors and donors. Because we serve children throughout the Commonwealth, we will submit grant and/or sponsorship requests to community and private foundations that are home to sizable portions of our program participants. Requests will be made modestly, thoughtfully, and in consideration of how many participants come from each county or region. We will also pursue funding from private donors and corporate sponsors, as we have done each year since our inception.

Project Duration: 1 year
Geographical Area Served: Virginia
Age Group To Be Served: K-12 with a focus on upper elementary and middle school students

Contact Information

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Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Mrs.
Contact First Name: Charlotte
Contact Last Name: Farley
Contact Title: Grant Writer
Contact Phone: 540-819-3015
Contact Email: grants@vachildrensbookfestival.org